. 


ALADDIN  &  CO 


A  ROMANCE  OF   YANKEE  MAGIC 


HERBERT  QUICK 

Author  of  "  In  the  Fairyland  of  America " 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY    HOLT  AND    COMPANY 
1904 


Copyright,  1904 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
Published  April,  1904 


ROBERT   DRITMMOND,    PRINTER,   NEW   YORK 


Contents. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

WHICH  is  OP  AN  INTRODUCTORY  CHARACTER i 

CHAPTER  II. 
STILL  INTRODUCTORY 13 

CHAPTER  III. 
REMINISCENTIALLY  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL 20 

CHAPTER  IV. 
JIM  DISCOVERS  HIS»CORAL  ISLAND 39 

CHAPTER  V. 
WE  REACH  THE  ATOLL 46 

CHAPTER  VI. 
I  AM  INDUCTED  INTO  THE  CAVE,  AND  ENLIST 55 

CHAPTER  VII. 
WE  MAKE  OUR  LANDING 67 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
A  WELCOME  TO  WALL  STREET  AND  Us 77 

CHAPTER  IX. 
I  Go  ABROAD  AND  WE  UNFURL  THE  JOLLY  ROGER 86 

CHAPTER  X. 
WE  DEDICATE  LYNHURST  PARK 96 

CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  EMPRESS  AND  SIR  JOHN  MEET  AGAIN 112 

CHAPTER  XII. 

IN  WHICH  THE  BURDENS  OP  WEALTH  BEGIN  TO  FALL  UPON 
Us. .  I2° 


iv  Contents. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PAGE 

A  SITTING  OR  Two  IN  THE  GAME  WITH  THE  WORLD  AND 
DESTINY 1 37 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

IN  WHICH  WE  LEARN  SOMETHING  OF  RAILROADS,  AND  AT 
TEND  SOME  REMARKABLE  CHRISTENINGS 152 

CHAPTER  XV. 

SOME  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  HEART  CONSIDERED  IN  THEIR  RELA 
TION  TO  DOLLARS  AND  CENTS 169 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
SOME  THINGS  WHICH  HAPPENED  IN  OUR  HALCYON  DAYS 185 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
RELATING  TO  THE  DISPOSITION  OF  THE  CAPTIVES 201 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   GOING  AWAY  OF  LAURA   AND    CLIFFORD,  AND   THE 
DEPARTURE  OF  MR.  TRESCOTT 214 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

IN  WHICH  EVENTS  RESUME  THEIR  USUAL  COURSE — AT  A 
SOMEWHAT  ACCELERATED  PACE 231 

CHAPTER  XX. 
I  TWICE  EXPLAIN  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  TRESCOTT  ESTATE  .   248 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
OF  CONFLICTS,  WITHIN  AND  WITHOUT 260 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
IN  WHICH  I  WIN  MY  GREAT  VICTORY 270 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE  "DUTCHMAN'S  MILL"  AND  WHAT  IT  GROUND 281 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  END 291 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
THAT  LAST  WEIRD  BATTLE  IN  THE  WEST 306 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
THE  END — AND  A  BEGINNING 320 


Aladdin  &  Co 


The  Persons  of  the  Story. 

JAMES  ELKINS,  the  "man  who  made  Lattimore,"  known  as 
"Jim." 

ALBERT  BARSLOW,  who  tells  the  tale;  the  friend  and 
partner  of  Jim. 

ALICE  BARSLOW,  his  wife;  at  first,  his  sweetheart. 

WILLIAM  TRESCOTT,  known  as  "Bill,"  a  farmer  and  capi 
talist. 

JOSEPHINE  TRESCOTT,  his  daughter. 

MRS.  TRESCOTT,  his  wife. 

MR.  HINCKLEY,  a  banker  of  Lattimore. 

MRS.  HINCKLEY,  his  wife;  devoted  to  the  emancipation  of 
woman. 

ANTONIA,  their  daughter. 

ALECK  MACDONALD,  pioneer  and  capitalist. 

GENERAL  LATTIMORE,  pioneer,  soldier,  and  godfather  of 
Lattimore. 

Miss  ADDISON,  the  general's  niece. 

CAPTAIN  MARION  TOLLIVER,  Confederate  veteran  and  Latti 
more  boomer. 

MRS.  TOLLIVER,  his  wife. 

WILL  LATTIMORE,  a  lawyer. 

MR.  BALLARD,  a  banker. 

J.  BEDFORD  CORNISH,  a  speculator,  who  with  Elkins,  Bars- 
low,  and  Hinckley  make  up  the  great  Lattimore  "Syndi 
cate." 

CLIFFORD  GIDDINGS,  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Lattimore 
Herald. 

DE  FOREST  BARR-SMITH,  an  Englishman  "representing 
capital." 


The  Persons  of  the  Story.  vii 

CECIL  BARR-SMITH,  his  brother. 

AVERY  PENDLETON,  of  New  York,  a  railway  magnate;   head 

of  the  "Pendleton  System." 
ALLEN  G.  WADE,  of  New  York;   head  of  the  Allen  G.  Wade 

Trust  Co. 
HALLIDAY,    a    railway    magnate;     head    of   the    "Halliday 

System." 

WATSON,  a  reporter. 
SCHWARTZ,  a  locomotive  engineer  on  the  Lattimore  &  Great 

Western. 

HEGVOLD,  a  fireman. 
CITIZENS  of    Lattimore,  Politicians,  Live-stock  Merchants, 

Railway  Clerks  and  Officials,  etc. 

SCENE:     Principally   in    the   Western    town    of    Lattimore, 

but  partly  in  New  York  and  Chicago. 
TIME:   Not  so  very  long  ago. 


Aladdin  &  Co 

CHAPTER   I. 
Wbfcb  is  of  an  irntroDuctorg  Character. 

OUR  National  Convention  met  in  Chicago  that 
year,  and  I  was  one  of  the  delegates.  I  had  looked 
forward  to  it  with  keen  expectancy.  I  was  now, 
at  five  o'clock  of  the  first  day,  admitting  to  myself 
that  it  was  a  bore. 

The  special  train,  with  its  crowd  of  overstimu- 
lated  enthusiasts,  the  throngs  at  the  stations,  the 
brass  bands,  bunting,  and  buncombe  all  jarred 
upon  me.  After  a  while  my  treason  was  betrayed 
to  the  boys  by  the  fact  that  I  was  not  hoarse.  They 
punished  me  by  making  me  sing  as  a  solo  the  air 
of  each  stanza  of  "Marching  Through  Georgia," 
"Tenting  To-night  on  the  Old  Camp-ground,"  and 
other  patriotic  songs,  until  my  voice  was  assimi 
lated  to  theirs.  But  my  gorge  rose  at  it  all,  and 
now,  at  five  o'clock  of  the  first  day,  I  was  seeking  a 
place  of  retirement  where  I  could  be  alone  and 
think  over  the  marvelous  event  which  had  sud 
denly  raised  me  from  yesterday's  parity  with  the 
fellows  on  the  train  to  my  present  state  of  exalta 
tion. 


2  Introductory. 

I  should  have  preferred  a  grotto  in  Vau  Vau  or 
some  south-looking  mountain  glen;  but  in  the  ab 
sence  of  any  such  retreat  in  Chicago,  I  turned 
into  the  old  art -gallery  in  Michigan  Avenue.  As  I 
went  floating  in  space  past  its  door,  my  eye  caught 
through  the  window  the  gleam  of  the  white  limbs 
of  statues,  and  my  being  responded  to  the  soul 
vibrations  they  sent  out.  So  I  paid  my  fee,  entered, 
and  found  the  tender  solitude  for  which  my  heart 
longed.  I  sat  down  and  luxuriated  in  thoughts  of 
the  so  recent  marvelous  experience.  Need  I  explain 
that  I  was  young  and  the  experience  was  one  of 
the  heart? 

I  was  so  young  that  my  delegateship  was  regarded 
as  a  matter  to  excite  wonder.  I  saw  my  picture  in 
the  papers  next  morning  as  a  youth  of  twenty-three 
who  had  become  his.  party's  leader  in  an  important 
agricultural  county.  Some,  in  the  shameless  lauda 
tion  of  a  sensational  press,  compared  me  to  the 
younger  Pitt.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  had  some 
talent  for  organization,  and  in  any  gathering  of 
men,  I  somehow  never  lacked  a  following.  I  was 
young  enough  to  be  an  honest  partisan,  enthusi 
astic  enough  to  be  useful,  strong  enough  to  be 
respected,  ignorant  enough  to  believe  my  party 
my  country's  safeguard,  and  I  was  prominent  in 
my  county  before  I  was  old  enough  to  vote.  At 
twenty-one  I  conducted  a  convention  fight  which 
made  a  member  of  Congress.  It  was  quite  natural, 
therefore,  that  I  should  be  delegate  to  this  conven 
tion,  and  that  I  had  looked  forward  to  it  with  keen 
expectancy.  The  remarkable  thing  was  my  falling 


Introductory.  <> 

off  from  its  work  now  by  virtue  of  that  recent  mar 
velous  experience  which  as  I  have  admitted  was  one 
of  the  heart.  Do  not  smile.  At  three-and-twenty 
even  delegates  have  hearts. 

My  mental  and  sentimental  state  is  of  importance 
in  this  history,  I  think,  or  I  should  not  make  so 
much  of  it.  I  feel  sure  that  I  should  not  have 
behaved  just  as  I  did  had  I  not  been  at  that  moment 
in  the  iridescent  cloudland  of  newly-reciprocated 
love.  Alice  had  accepted  me  not  an  hour  before 
my  departure  for  Chicago.  Hence  my  loathing 
for  such  things  as  nominating  speeches  and  the  report 
of  the  Committee  on  Credentials,  and  my  yearning 
for  the  Vau  Vau  grotto.  She  had  yielded  herself  up 
to  me  with  such  manifold  sweetnesses,  uttered  and 
unutterable  (all  of  which  had  to  be  gone  over  in 
my  mind  constantly  to  make  sure  of  their  reality), 
that  the  contest  in  Indiana,  and  the  cause  of  our 
own  State's  Favorite  Son,  became  sickening  burdens 
to  me,  which  rolled  away  as  I  gazed  upon  the  canvases 
in  the  gallery.  I  lay  back  upon  a  seat,  half  closed  my 
eyes,  and  looked  at  the  pictures.  When  one  comes 
to  consider  the  matter,  an  art  gallery  is  a  wonderfully 
different  thing  from  a  national  convention! 

As  I  looked  on  them,  the  still  paintings  became 
instinct  with  life.  Yonder  shepherdess  shielding 
from  the  thorns  the  little  white  lamb  was  Alice, 
and  back  behind  the  clump  of  elms  was  myself, 
responding  to  her  silvery  call.  The  cottage  on  the 
mountain-side  was  ours.  That  lady  waving  her 
handkerchief  from  the  promontory  was  Alice,  too; 
and  I  was  the  dim  figure  on  the  deck  of  the  passing 


4  Introductory. 

ship.  I  was  the  knight  and  she  the  wood-nymph;  I 
the  gladiator  in  the  circus,  she  the  Roman  lady 
who  agonized  for  me  in  the  audience ;  I  the  troubadour 
who  twanged  the  guitar,  she  the  princess  whose  fair 
shoulder  shone  through  the  lace  at  the  balcony 
window.  They  lived  and  moved  before  my  very  eyes. 
I  knew  the  unseen  places  beyond  the  painted  moun 
tains,  and  saw  the  secret  things  the  artists  only 
dreamed  of.  Doves  cooed  for  me  from  the  clumps 
of  thorn;  the  clouds  sailed  in  pearly  serenity  across 
the  skies,  their  shadows  mottling  mountain,  hill, 
and  plain;  and  out  from  behind  every  bole,  and 
through  every  leafy  screen,  glimpsed  white  dryads 
and  fleeing  fays. 

Clearly  the  convention  hall  was  no  place  for  me. 
"Hang  the  speech  of  the  temporary  chairman, 
anyhow!"  thought  I;  "and  as  for  the  platform,  let 
it  point  with  pride,  and  view  with  apprehension,  to 
its  heart's  content;  it  is  sure  to  omit  all  reference  to 
the  overshadowing  issue  of  the  day — Alice!" 

All  the  world  loves  a  lover,  and  a  true  lover  loves 
all  the  world, — especially  that  portion  of  it  simi 
larly  blessed.  So,  when  I  heard  a  girl's  voice  alter 
nating  in  intimate  converse  with  that  of  a  man, 
my  sympathies  went  out  to  them,  and  I  turned 
silently  to  look.  They  must  have  come  in  during 
my  reverie;  for  I  had  passed  the  place  where  they 
were  sitting  and  had  not  seen  them.  There  was  a 
piece  of  grillwork  between  my  station  and  theirs, 
through  which  I  could  see  them  plainly.  The  gallery 
had  seemed  deserted  when  I  went  in,  and  still  seemed 
so,  save  for  the  two  voices. 


Introductory.  5 

Hers  was  low  and  calm,  but  very  earnest;  and 
there  was  in  it  some  inflection  or  intonation  which 
reminded  me  of  the  country  girls  I  had  known  on 
the  farm  and  at  school.  His  was  of  a  peculiarly 
sonorous  and  vibrant  quality,  its  every  tone  so 
clear  and  distinct  that  it  would  have  been  worth  a 
fortune  to  a  public  speaker.  Such  a  voice  and 
enunciation  are  never  associated  with  any  mind  not 
strong  in  the  qualities  of  resolution  and  decision. 

On  looking  at  her,  I  saw  nothing  countrified 
corresponding  to  the  voice.  She  was  dressed  in 
something  summery  and  cool,  and  wore  a  sort  of 
flowered  blouse,  the  presence  of  which  was  explained 
by  the  easel  before  which  she  sat,  and  the  palette 
through  which  her  thumb  protruded.  She  had  laid 
down  her  brush,  and  the  young  man  was  using  her 
mahlstick  in  a  badly-directed  effort  to  smear  into 
a  design  some  splotches  of  paint  on  the  unused  por 
tion  of  her  canvas. 

He  was  by  some  years  her  senior,  but  both  were 
young — she,  very  young.  He  was  swarthy  of 
complexion,  and  his  smoothly-shaven,  square-set 
jaw  and  full  red  lips  were  bluish  with  the  subcutane 
ous  blackness  of  his  beard.  His  dress  was  so  dis 
tinctly  late  in  style  as  to  seem  almost  foppish;  but 
there  was  nothing  of  the  exquisite  in  his  erect  and 
athletic  form,  or  in  his  piercing  eye. 

She  was  ruddily  fair,  with  that  luxuriant  auburn- 
brown  hair  which  goes  with  eyes  of  amberish-brown 
and  freckles.  These  latter  she  had,  I  observed 
with  a  renewal  of  the  thought  of  the  country  girls 
and  the  old  district  school.  She  was  slender  of 


6  Introductory. 

waist,  full  of  bust,  and,  after  a  lissome,  sylph-like 
fashion,  altogether  charming  in  form.  With  all  her 
roundness,  she  was  slight  and  a  little  undersized. 

So  much  of  her  as  there  was,  the  young  fellow 
seemed  ready  to  absorb,  regarding  her  with  avid 
eyes — a  gaze  which  she  seldom  met.  But  when 
ever  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  mahlstick,  her 
eyes  sought  his  countenance  with  a  look  which  was 
almost  scrutiny.  It  was  as  if  some  extrinsic  force 
drew  her  glance  to  his  face,  until  the  stronger  com 
pulsion  of  her  modesty  drove  it  away  at  the  return 
of  his  black  orbs.  My  heart  recognized  with  a 
throb  the  freemasonry  into  which  I  had  lately  been 
initiated,  and,  all  unknown  to  them,  I  hailed  them 
as  members  of  the  order. 

Their  conversation  came  to  me  in  shreds  and 
fragments,  which  I  did  not  at  all  care  to  hear.  I 
recognized  in  it  those  inanities  with  which  youth 
busies  the  lips,  leaving  the  mind  at  rest,  that  the 
interplay  of  magnetic  discharges  from  heart  to  heart 
may  go  on  uninterruptedly.  It  is  a  beautiful  pro 
vision  of  nature,  but  I  did  not  at  that  time  admire 
it.  I  pitied  them.  Alice  and  I  had  passed  through 
that  stage,  and  into  the  phase  marked  by  long  and 
eloquent  silences. 

"I  was  brought  up  to  think,"  I  remember  to  have 
heard  the  fair  stranger  say,  following  out,  apparently, 
some  subject  under  discussion  between  them,  "that 
the  surest  way  to  make  a  child  steal  jam  is  to  spy 
upon  him.  I  should  feel  ashamed." 

"Quite  right,"  said  he,  "but  in  Europe  and 
in  the  East,  and  even  here  in  Chicago,  in  some 


Introductory.  j 

circles,    it    is    looked    upon    as    indispensable,    you 
know." 

"In  art,  at  least,"  she  went  on,  "there  is  no  sex. 
Whoever  can  help  me  in  my  work  is  a  companion 
that  I  don't  need  any  chaperon  to  protect  me  from. 
If  I  wasn't  perfectly  sure  of  that,  I  should  give  up 
and  go  back  home." 

"Now,  don't  draw  the  line  so  as  to  shut  me  out," 
he  protested.  "How  can  I  help  you  with  your 
work?" 

She  looked  him  steadily  in  the  face  now,  her  intent 
and  questioning  regard  shading  off  into  a  somewhat 
arch  smile 

"I  can't  think  of  any  way,"  said  she,  "unless  it 
would  be  by  posing  for  me." 

"There's  another  way,"  he  answered,  "and  the 
only  one  I'd  care  about." 

She  suddenly  became  absorbed  in  the  contem 
plation  of  the  paints  on  her  palette,  at  which  she 
made  little  thrusts  with  a  brush;  and  at  last  she 
queried,  doubtfully,  "How?" 

"I've  heard  or  read,"  he  answered,  "that  no 
artist  ever  rises  to  the  highest,  you  know,  until  after 
experiencing  some  great  love.  I — can't  you  think 
of  any  other  way  besides  the  posing?" 

She  brought  the  brush  close  to  her  eyes,  minutely 
inspecting  its  point  for  a  moment,  then  seemed 
to  take  in  his  expression  with  a  swift  sweeping 
glance,  resumed  the  examination  of  the  brush, 
and  finally  looked  him  in  the  face  again,  a  little  red 
spot  glowing  in  her  cheek,  and  a  glint  of  fire  in 
her  eye.  I  was  too  dense  to  understand  it,  but  I 


8  Introductory, 

felt  that  there  was  a  trace  of  resentment  in  her 
mien. 

"Oh,  I  don't  know  about  that!"  she  said.  "There 
may  be  some  other  way.  I  haven't  met  all  your 
friends,  and  you  may  be  the  means  of  introducing 
me  to  the  very  man." 

I  did  not  hear  his  reply,  though  I  confess  I  tried  to 
catch  it.  She  resumed  her  work  of  copying  one  of 
the  paintings.  This  she  did  in  a  mechanical  sort 
of  way,  slowly,  and  with  crabbed  touches,  but  with 
some  success.  I  thought  her  lacking  in  anything 
like  control  over  the  medium  in  which  she  worked; 
but  the  results  promised  rather  well.  He  seemed 
annoyed  at  her  sudden  accession  of  industry,  and 
looked  sometimes  quizzically  at  her  work,  often 
hungrily  at  her.  Once  or  twice  he  touched  her 
hand  as  she  stepped  near  him;  but  she  neither 
reproved  him  nor  allowed  him  to  retain  it. 

I  felt  that  I  had  taken  her  measure  by  this  time. 
She  was  some  Western  country  girl,  well  supplied 
with  money,  blindly  groping  toward  the  career  of 
an  artist.  Her  accent,  her  dress,  and  her  occupa 
tion  told  of  her  origin  and  station  in  life,  and  of 
her  ambitions.  The  blindness  I  guessed, — partly 
from  the  manner  of  her  work,  partly  from  the  inher 
ent  probabilities  of  the  case.  If  the  young  man 
had  been  eliminated  from  this  problem  with  which 
my  love-sick  imagination  was  busying  itself,  I  could 
have  followed  her  back  confidently  to  some  rural 
neighborhood,  and  to  a  year  or  two  of  painting 
portraits  from  photographs,  and  landscapes  from 
"studies,"  and  exhibiting  them  at  the  county  fair; 


Introductory.  o 

the  teaching  of  some  pupils,  in  an  unnecessary  but 
conscientiously  thrifty  effort  to  get  back  some  of 
the  money  invested  in  an  "art  education "  in  Chicago ; 
and  a  final  reversion  to  type  after  her  marriage  with 
the  village  lawyer,  doctor  or  banker,  or  the  owner 
of  the  adjoining  farm.  I  was  young;  but  I  had 
studied  people,  and  had  already  seen  such  things 
happen. 

But  the  young  man  could  not  be  eliminated.  He 
sat  there  idly,  his  every  word  and  look  surcharged 
with  passion.  As  I  wondered  how  long  it  would  be 
until  they  were  as  happy  as  Alice  and  I,  the  thought 
grew  upon  me  that,  however  familiar  might  be  the 
type  to  which  she  belonged,  he  was  unclassified. 
His  accent  was  Eastern — of  New  York,  I  judged. 
He  looked  like  the  young  men  in  the  magazine 
illustrations — interesting,  but  outside  my  field  of 
observation.  And  I  could  not  fail  to  see  that  girl 
must  find  herself  similarly  at  odds  with  him.  "  But," 
thought  I,  "love  levels  all!"  And  I  freshly  interro 
gated  the  pictures  and  statues  for  transportation  to 
my  own  private  Elysium,  forgetful  of  my  uncon 
scious  neighbors. 

My  attention  was  recalled  to  them,  however,  by 
their  arrangements  for  departure,  and  a  concomitant 
slightly  louder  tone  in  their  conversation. 

"It's  just  a  spectacular  show,"  said  he;  "no  plot 
or  anything  of  that  sort,  you  know,  but  good  music 
and  dancing;  and  when  we  get  tired  of  it  we  can 
go.  We'll  have  a  little  supper  at  Auriccio's  after 
ward,  if  you'll  be  so  kind.  It's  only  a  step  from 
McVicker's." 


lo  Introductory. 

"Won't  it  be  pretty  late?"  she  queried. 

"Not  for  Chicago,"  said  he,  "and  you'll  find 
material  for  a  picture  at  Auriccio's  about  midnight. 
It's  quite  like  the  Latin  Quarter,  sometimes." 

"I  want  to  see  the  real  Latin  Quarter,  and  no 
imitation,"  she  answered.  "Oh,  I  guess  I'll  go. 
It'll  furnish  me  with  material  for  a  letter  to  mamma, 
however  the  picture  may  turn  out." 

"I'll  order  supper  for  the  Empress,"  said  he, 
"and—" 

"And  for  the  illustrious  Sir  John,"  she  added. 
"But  you  mustn't  call  me  that  any  more.  I've 
been  reading  her  history,  and  I  don't  like  it.  I'm 
glad  he  died  on  St.  Helena,  now:  I  used  to  feel 
sorry  for  him." 

"Transfer  your  pity  to  the  downtrodden  Sir 
John,"  he  replied,  "and  make  a  real  living  man 
happy." 

They  passed  out  and  left  me  to  my  dreams.  But 
visions  did  not  return.  My  idyl  was  spoiled.  Old- 
fashioned  ideas  emerged,  and  took  form  in  the 
plain  light  of  every-day  common-sense.  I  knew  the 
wonderfully  gorgeous  spectacle  these  two  young 
people  were  going  to  see  at  the  play  that  night, 
with  its  lights,  its  music,  its  splendidly  meretricious 
Orientalism.  And  I  knew  Auriccio's, — not  a  dis 
reputable  place  at  all,  perhaps;  but  free-and-easy, 
and  distinctly  Bohemian.  I  wished  that  this  little 
girl,  so  arrogantly  and  ignorantly  disdainful  (as  Alice 
would  have  been  under  the  same  circumstances) 
of  such  European  conventions  as  the  chaperon,  so 
fresh,  so  young,  so  full  of  allurement,  so  under  the 


Introductory. 


1 


influence  of  this  smooth,  dark,  and  passionate 
wooer  with  the  vibrant  voice,  could  be  otherwise 
accompanied  on  this  night  of  pleasure  than  by 
himself  alone. 

"It's  none  of  your  business,"  said  the  voice  of 
that  cold-hearted  and  slothful  spirit  which  keeps  us 
in  our  groove,  "and  you  couldn't  do  anything, 
anyhow.  Besides,  he's  abjectly  in  love  with  her: 
would  there  be  any  danger  if  it  were  you  and  your 
Alice?" 

"I'm  not  at  all  sure  about  him  or  his  abjectness," 
replied  my  uneasy  conscience.  "He  knows  better 
than  to  do  this." 

"What  do  you  know  of  either  of  them?"  an 
swered  this  same  Spirit  of  Routine.  "What  signify 
a  few  sentences  casually  overheard?  She  may  be 
something  quite  different;  there  are  strange  things 
in  Chicago." 

"I'll  wager  anything,"  said  I  hotly,  "that  she's 
a  good  American  girl  of  the  sort  I  live  among  and 
was  brought  up  with!  And  she  may  be  in  danger." 

"If  she's  that  sort  of  girl,"  said  the  Voice,  "you 
may  rely  upon  her  to  take  care  of  herself." 

"That's  pretty  nearly  true,"  I  admitted. 

"Besides,"  said  the  Voice  illogically,  "such  things 
happen  every  night  in  such  a  city.  It's  a  part  of  the 
great  tragedy.  Don't  be  Quixotic!" 

Here  was  where  the  Voice  lost  its  case:  for  my 
conscience  was  stirred  afresh;  and  I  went  back  to 
the  convention-hall  carrying  on  a  joint  debate 
with  myself.  Once  in  the  hall,  however,  I  was 
conscripted  into  a  war  which  was  raging  all  through 


1 2  Introductory. 

our  delegation  over  the  succession  in  our  member 
ship  in  the  National  Committee.  I  thought  no 
more  of  the  idyl  of  the  art-gallery  until  the  adjourn 
ment  for  the  night. 


CHAPTER   II. 
Still  ITntroDuctorg. 

THE  great  throng  from  the  hall  surged  along  the 
streets  in  an  Amazonian  network  of  streams,  gather 
ing  in  boiling  lakes  in  the  great  hotels,  dribbling 
off  into  the  boarding-house  districts  in  the  suburbs, 
seeping  down  into  the  slimy  fens  of  vice.  Again  I 
found  myself  out  of  touch  with  it  all.  I  gave  my 
companions  the  slip,  and  started  for  my  hotel. 

All  at  once  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  had  not  dined, 
and  with  the  thought  came  the  remembrance  of  my 
pair  of  lovers,  and  their  supper  together.  With  a 
return  of  the  feeling  that  these  were  the  only  people 
in  Chicago  possessing  spirits  akin  to  mine,  I  shaped 
my  course  for  Auriccio's.  My  country  dazedness 
led  me  astray  once  or  twice,  but  I  found  the  place, 
retreated  into  the  farthest  corner,  sat  down,  and 
ordered  supper. 

It  was  not  one  of  the  places  where  the  out-of- 
town  visitors  were  likely  to  resort,  and  it  was  in 
fact  rather  quieter  than  usual.  The  few  who  were 
at  the  tables  went  out  before  my  meal  was  served, 
and  for  a  few  minutes  I  was  alone.  Then  the  Em 
press  and  Sir  John  entered,  followed  by  half  a 

'3 


14  Still  Introductory. 

dozen  other  playgoers.  The  two  on  whom  my 
sentimental  interest  was  fixed  came  far  down  toward 
my  position,  attracted  by  the  quietude  which  had 
lured  me,  and  seated  themselves  at  a  table  in  a  sort 
of  alcove,  cut  off  from  the  main  room  by  columns 
and  palms,  secluded  enough  for  privacy,  public 
enough,  perhaps,  for  propriety.  So  far  as  I  was 
concerned  I  could  see  them  quite  plainly,  looking, 
as  I  did,  from  my  gloomy  corner  toward  the  light 
of  the  restaurant;  and  I  was  sufficiently  close  to 
be  within  easy  earshot.  I  began  to  have  the  sensation 
of  shadowing  them,  until  I  recalled  the  fact  that,  so 
far,  it  had  been  a  case  of  their  following  me. 

I  thought  his  manner  toward  her  had  changed 
since  the  afternoon.  There  was  now  an  openness 
of  wooing,  an  abandonment  of  reserve  in  glance 
and  attitude,  which  should  have  admonished  her 
of  an  approaching  crisis  in  their  affairs.  Yet  she 
seemed  cooler  and  more  self-possessed  than  before. 
Save  for  a  little  flutter  in  her  low  laugh,  I  should 
have  pronounced  her  entirely  at  ease.  She  looked 
very  sweet  and  girlish  in  her  high-necked  dress, 
which  helped  make  up  a  costume  that  she  seemed 
to  have  selected  to  subdue  and  conceal,  rather  than  to 
display,  her  charms.  If  such  was  her  plan,  it  went 
pitifully  wrong:  his  advances  went  on  from  ap 
proach  to  approach,  like  the  last  manoeuvres  of  a 
successful  siege. 

"No,"  I  heard  her  say,  as  I  became  conscious  that 
we  three  were  alone  again;  "not  here!  Not  at  all! 
Stop!" 

When  I  looked  at  them  they  were  quietly  sitting 


Still  Introductory.  i? 

at  the  table;  but  her  face  was  pale,  his  flushed. 
Pretty  soon  the  waiter  came  and  served  cham 
pagne.  I  felt  sure  that  she  had  never  seen  any 
before. 

"How  funny  it  looks,"  said  she,  "with  the  bubbles 
coming  up  in  the  middle  like  a  little  fountain; 
and  how  pretty!  Why,  the  stem  is  hollow,  isn't 
it?" 

He  laughed  and  made  some  foolish  remark  about 
love  bubbling  up  in  his  heart.  When  he  set  his  glass 
down,  I  could  see  that  his  hands  were  trembling 
as  with  palsy, — so  much  so  that  it  was  tipped  over 
and  broken. 

"I'll  fill  another,"  said  he.  "Aren't  you  sorry  you 
broke  it?" 

"I?"  she  queried.  "You're  not  going  to  lay  that 
to  me,  are  you?" 

"You're  the  only  one  to  blame!"  he  replied. 
"You  must  hold  it  till  it's  steady.  I'll  hold  your 
glass  with  the  other.  Why,  you  don't  take  any 
at  all!  Don't  you  like  it,  dear?" 

She  shrank  back,  looked  toward  the  door,  and 
then  took  the  hand  in  both  of  hers,  holding  it  close 
to  her  side,  and  drank  the  wine  like  a  child  taking 
medicine.  His  arm,  his  hand  still  holding  the  glass, 
slipped  about  her  waist,  but  she  turned  swiftly 
and  silently  freed  herself  and  sat  down  by  the  chair 
in  which  he  had  meant  that  both  should  sit,  holding 
his  hands.  Then  in  a  moment  I  saw  her  sitting  on 
the  other  side  of  the  table,  and  he  was  filling  the 
glasses  again.  The  guests  had  all  departed.  The 
well-disciplined  waiters  had  effaced  themselves. 


1 6  Still  Introductory. 

Only  we  three  were  there.  I  wondered  if  I  ought 
to  do  anything. 

They  sat  and  talked  in  low  tones.  He  was  drink 
ing  a  good  deal  of  the  champagne;  she,  little;  and 
neither  seemed  to  be  eating  anything.  He  sat  oppo 
site  to  her,  leaning  over  as  if  to  consume  her  with 
his  eyes.  She  returned  his  gaze  often  now,  and 
often '  smiled ;  but  her  smile  was  drawn  and  tremu 
lous,  and,  to  my  mind,  pitifully  appealing.  I  no 
longer  wondered  if  I  ought  to  do  anything;  for, 
once,  when  I  partly  rose  to  go  and  speak  to  them, 
the  impossibility  of  the  thing  overcame  my  half 
resolve,  and  I  sat  down.  The  anti-quixotic  spirit 
won,  after  all. 

At  last  a  waiter,  returning  with  the  change  for 
the  bill  with  which  I  had  paid  my  score,  was  hailed 
by  Sir  John,  and  was  paid  for  their  supper.  I  looked 
to  see  them  as  they  started  for  home.  The  girl  rose 
and  made  a  movement  toward  her  wrap.  He  reached 
it  first  and  placed  it  about  her  shoulders.  In  so 
doing,  he  drew  her  to  him,  and  began  speaking 
softly  and  passionately  to  her  in  words  I  could  not 
hear.  Her  face  was  turned  upward  and  backward 
toward  him,  and  all  her  resistance  seemed  gone. 
I  should  have  been  glad  to  believe  this  the  safe  and 
triumphant  surrender  to  an  honest  love;  but  here, 
after  the  dances  and  Stamboul  spectacles,  hidden 
by  the  palms,  beside  the  table  with  its  empty  bottles 
and  its  broken  glass,  how  could  I  believe  it  such? 
I  turned  away,  as  if  to  avoid  the  sight  of  the  crush 
ing  of  some  innocent  thing  which  I  was  powerless  to 
aid,  a.nd  strode  toward  the  door, 


Still  Introductory.  17 

Then  I  heard  a  little  cry,  and  saw  her  come  flying 
down  the  great  hall,  leaving  him  standing  amazedly 
in  the  archway  of  the  palm  alcove. 

She  passed  me  at  the  door,  her  face  vividly  white, 
went  out  into  the  street,  like  a  dove  from  the  trap 
at  a  shooting  tournament,  and  sprang  lightly  upon 
a  passing  street-car.  I  could  act  now,  and  I  would 
see  her  to  a  place  of  safety;  so  I,  too,  swung  on  by 
the  rail  of  the  rear  car.  She  never  once  turned  her 
face;  but  I  saw  Sir  John  come  to  the  door  of  the 
restaurant  and  look  both  ways  for  her,  and  as  he  stood 
perplexed  and  alarmed,  our  train  turned  the  curve 
at  the  next  corner,  we  were  swept  off  toward  the 
South  Side,  and  the  dark  young  man  passed,  as  I 
supposed,  "into  my  dreams  forever."  I  made  my 
way  forward  a  few  seats  and  saw  her  sitting  there 
with  her  head  bowed  upon  the  back  of  the  seat  in 
front  of  her.  I  bitterly  wished  that  he,  if  he  had  a 
heart,  might  see  her  there,  bruised  in  spirit,  her 
little  ignorant  white  soul,  searching  itself  for  smutches 
of  the  uncleanness  it  feared.  I  wished  that  Alice 
might  be  there  to  go  to  her  and  comfort  her  without 
a  word.  I  paid  her  fare,  and  the  conductor  seemed 
to  understand  that  she  was  not  to  be  disturbed.  A 
drunken  man  in  rough  clothes  came  into  the  car, 
walked  forward  and  looked  at  her  a  moment,  and 
as  I  was  about  to  go  to  him  and  make  him  sit  else 
where,  he  turned  away  and  came  back  to  the  rear, 
as  if  he  had  some  sort  of  maudlin  realization  that  the 
front  of  the  train  was  sacred  ground. 

At  last  she  looked  about,  signalled  for  the  car 
to  stop,  and  alighted.  I  followed,  rather  suspecting 


1 8  Still  Introductory. 

that  she  did  not  know  her  way.  She  walked  steadily 
on,  however,  to  a  big,  dark  house  with  a  vine-covered 
porch,  close  to  the  sidewalk.  A  stout  man,  coatless, 
and  in  a  white  shirt,  stood  at  the  gate.  He  wore  a 
slouch  hat,  and  I  knew  him,  even  in  that  dim  light, 
for  a  farmer.  She  stopped  for  a  moment,  and  without 
a  word,  sprang  into  his  arms. 

"Wai,  little  gal,  ain't  yeh  out  purty  late?"  I 
heard  him  say,  as  I  walked  past.  "Didn't  expect 
yer  dad  to  see  yeh,  did  yeh?  Why,  yeh  ain't  a-cryin', 
be  yeh  ? ' ' 

"O  pa!  O  pa!"  was  all  I  heard  her  say;  but 
it  was  enough.  I  walked  to  the  corner,  and  sat 
down  on  the  curbstone,  dead  tired,  but  happy.  In 
a  little  while  I  went  back  toward  the  street-car 
line,  and  as  I  passed  the  vine-clad  porch,  heard  the 
farmer's  bass  voice,  and  stopped  to  listen,  frankly 
an  eavesdropper,  and  feeling,  somehow,  that  I  had 
earned  the  right  to  hear. 

"Why,  o'  course,  I'll  take  yeh  away,  ef  yeh  don't 
like  it  here,  little  gal,"  he  was  saying.  "Yes,  we'll 
go  right  in  an'  pack  up  now,  if  yeh  say  so.  Only 
it's  a  little  suddent,  and  may  hurt  the  Madame's 
feelin's,  y'  know — " 

At  the  hotel  I  was  forced  by  the  crowded  state 
of  the  city  to  share  the  bed  of  one  of  my  fellow  dele 
gates.  He  was  a  judge  from  down  the  state,  and 
awoke  as  I  lay  down. 

"That  you,  Barslow?"  said  he.  "Do  you  know 
a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Elkins,  of  Cleveland?" 

"No,"  said  I,  "why?" 


Still  Introductory.  19 

"He  was  here  to  see  you,  or  rather  to  inquire  if 
you  were  Al  Barslow  who  used  to  live  in  Pleasant 
Valley  Township,"  the  Judge  went  on.  "He's  the 
fellow  who  organized  the  Ohio  flambeau  brigade. 
Seems  smart." 

"Pleasant  Valley  Township,  did  he  say?  Yes,  I 
know  him.  It's  Jimmie  Elkins." 

And  I  sank  to  sleep  and  to  dreams,  in  which 
Jimmie  Elkins,  the  Empress,  Sir  John,  Alice,  and 
myself  acted  in  a  spectacular  drama,  like  that  at 
McVicker's.  And  yet  there  are  those  who  say  there 
is  nothing  in  dreams! 


CHAPTER   III. 
•Remtniecentfallg  autobiographical. 

THIS  Jimmie  Elkins  was  several  years  older  than  I; 
but  that  did  not  prevent  us,  as  boys,  from  being  fast 
friends.  At  seventeen  he  had  a  coterie  of  followers 
among  the  smaller  fry  of  ten  and  twelve,  his  tastes 
clinging  long  to  the  things  of  boyhood.  He  and  I 
played  together,  after  the  darkening  of  his  lip  sug 
gested  the  razor,  and  when  the  youths  of  his  age  were 
most  of  them  acquiring  top  buggies,  and  thinking  of 
the  long  Sunday-night  drives  with  their  girls.  Jim 
preferred  thetboys,  and  the  trade  of  the  fisher  and 
huntsman. 

Why,  in  spite  of  parental  opposition,  I  loved 
Jimmie,  is  not  hard  to  guess.  He  had  an  odd  and 
freakish  humor,  and  talked  more  of  Indian-fighting, 
filibustering  in  gold-bearing  regions,  and  of  moving 
accidents  by  flood  and  field,  than  of  crops,  live-stock, 
or  bowery  dances.  He  liked  me  just  as  did  the 
older  men  who  sent  me  to  the  National  Convention, — 
in  spite  of  my  youth.  He  was  a  ne'er-do-weel,  said 
my  father,  but  I  snared  gophers  and  hunted  and 
fished  with  him,  and  we  loved  each  other  as  brothers 
seldom  do. 

ao 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    2 1 

At  last,  I  began  teaching  school,  and  working  my 
way  to  a  better  education  than  our  local  standard 
accepted  as  either  useful  or  necessary,  and  Jim  and 
I  drifted  apart.  He  had  always  kept  up  a  volumi 
nous  correspondence  with  that  class  of  advertisers 
whose  black-letter  "Agents  Wanted"  is  so  attrac 
tive  to  the  farmer-boy;  and  he  was  usually  agent 
for  some  of  their  wares.  Finally,  I  heard  of  him  as  a 
canvasser  for  a  book  sold  by  subscription, — a  "Vet 
erinarians'  Guide,"  I  believe  it  was, — and  report 
said  that  he  was  "making  money."  Again  I  learned 
that  he  had  established  a  publishing  business  of  some 
kind;  and,  later,  that  reverses  had  forced  him  to 
discontinue  it, — the  old  farmer  who  told  me  said  he 
had  "failed  up."  Then  I  heard  no  more  of  him 
until  that  night  of  the  convention,  when  I  had  the 
adventure  with  the  Empress  and  Sir  John,  all  un 
known  to  them;  and  Jim  made  the  ineffectual 
attempt  to  find  me.  His  family  had  left  the  old 
neighborhood,  and  so  had  mine;  and  the  chances 
of  our  ever  meeting  seemed  very  slight.  In  fact  it 
was  some  years  later  and  after  many  of  the  brave 
dreams  of  the  youthful  publicist  had  passed  away, 
that  I  casually  stumbled  upon  him  in  the  smoking- 
room  of  a  parlor-car,  coming  out  of  Chicago. 

I  did  not  know  him  at  first.  He  came  forward,  and, 
extending  his  hand,  said,  "How  are  you,  Al?"  and 
paused,  holding  the  hand  I  gave  him,  evidently 
expecting  to  enjoy  a  period  of  perplexity  on  my 
part.  But  with  one  good  look  in  his  eyes  I  knew 
him.  I  made  him  sit  down  by  me,  and  for  half  an 
hour  we  were  too  much  engrossed  in  reminiscences 


22    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

to  ask  after  such  small  matters  as  business,  resi 
dence,  and  general  welfare. 

"Where  all  have  you  been,  Jim,  and  what  have 
you  been  doing,  since  you  followed  off  the  'Veter 
inarians'  Guide,'  and  I  lost  you?"  I  inquired  at 
last. 

"I've  veen  everywhere,  and  I've  done  everything, 
almost,"  said  he.  "Put  it  in  the  'negative  case,' 
and  my  history '11  be  briefer." 

"I  should  regard  organizing  a  flambeau  brigade," 
said  I,  "as  about  the  last  thing  you  would  engage 
in." 

"Ah!"  he  replied,  "His  Whiskers  at  the  hotel  told 
you  I  called  that  time,  did  he?  Well,  I  didn't  think 
he  had  the  sense.  And  I  doubted  the  memory  on 
your  part,  and  I  wasn't  at  all  sure  you  were  the  real 
Barslow.  But  about  the  flambeaux.  The  fact  is, 
I  had  some  stock  in  the  flambeau  factory,  and  I  was 
a  rabid  partisan  of  flambeaux.  They  seemed  so 
patriotic,  you  know,  so  sort  of  ennobling,  and  so 
convincing,  as  to  the  merits  of  the  tariff  contro 
versy!" 

It  was  the  same  old  Jim,  I  thought. 

"We  used  to  have  a  scheme,"  I  remarked,  "our 
favorite  one,  of  occupying  an  island  in  the  Pacific, — 
or  was  it  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Spanish 
Main—" 

"If  it  was  the  place  where  we  were  to  make  slaves 
of  all  the  natives,  and  I  was  to  be  king,  and  you 
Grand  Vizier,"  he  answered,  as  if  it  were  a  weighty 
matter,  and  he  on  the  witness-stand,  "it  was  in  the 
Pacific — the  South  Pacific,  where  the  whale-oil 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    23 

comes  from.  A  coral  atoll,  with  a  crystal  lagoon 
in  the  middle  for  our  ships,  and  a  fringe  of  palms 
along  the  margin — coco-palms,  you  remember;  and 
the  lagoon  was  green,  sometimes,  and  sometimes 
blue;  and  the  sharks  never  came  over  the  bar,  but 
the  porpoises  came  in  and  played  for  us,  and  made 
fireworks  in  the  phosphorescent  waves  .  .  .  '<' 

His  eyes  grew  almost  tender,  as  he  gazed  out  of 
the  window,  and  ceased  to  speak  without  finishing 
the  sentence, — which  it  took  me  some  minutes  to 
follow  out  to  the  end,  in  my  mind.  I  was  delighted 
and  touched  to  find  these  foolish  things  so  green  in 
his  memory. 

"The  plan  involved,"  said  I  soberly,  "capturing  a 
Spanish  galleon  filled  -with  treasure,  finding  two 
lovely  ladies  in  the  cabin,  and  offering  them  their 
liberty.  And  we  sailed  with  them  for  a  port;  and, 
as  I  remember  it,  their  tears  at  parting  conquered 
us,  and  we  married  them;  and  lived  richer  than  oil 
magnates,  and  grander  than  Monte  Cristos  forever 
after:  do  you  remember?" 

"Remember!  Well,  I  should  smile!" — he  had 
been  laughing  like  a  boy,  with  his  old  frank  laugh. 
"Them's  the  things  we  don't  forget ...  Did  you 
ever  gather  any  information  as  to  what  a  galleon 
really  was?  I  never  did." 

"I  had  no  more  idea  than  I  now  have  of  the 
Rosicrucian  Mysteries;  and  I  must  confess,"  said  I, 
"that  I'm  a  little  hazy  on  the  galleon  question 
yet.  As  to  piracy,  now,  and  robbers  and  robbery, 
actual  life  fills  out  the  gaps  in  the  imagination  of 
boyhood,  doesn't  it,  Jim?" 


24    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

"Apt  to,"  he  assented,  "but  specifically?  As  to 
which,  you  know?" 

"Well,  I  've  had  my  share  of  experience  with  them," 
I  answered,  "though  not  so  much  in  the  line  of  rob-or, 
as  we  planned,  but  more  as  rob-ee." 

Jim  looked  at  me  quizzically. 

"Board  of  Trade,  faro,  or  ...  what?"   he  ventured. 

"General business,"  I  responded,  "and  . .  .  politics." 

"Local,  state,  or  national?"  he  went  on,  craftily 
ignoring  the  general  business. 

"A  little  national,  some  state,  but  the  bulk  of  it 
local.  I've  been  elected  County  Treasurer,  down 
where  I  live,  for  four  successive  terms." 

"Good  for  you!"  he  responded.  "But  I  don't  see 
how  that  can  be  made  to  harmonize  with  your 
remark  about  rob-or  and  rob-ee.  It's  been  your 
own  fault,  if  you  haven't  been  on  the  profitable  side 
of  the  game,  with  the  dear  people  on  the  other. 
And  I  judge  from  your  looks  that  you  eat  three 
meals  a  day,  right  along,  anyhow.  Come,  now, 
b'lay  this  rob-ee  business  (as.  Sir  Henry  Morgan 
used  to  say)  till  you  get  back  to-  Buncombe  County. 
As  a  former  partner  in  crime,  I  won't  squeal;  and 
the  next  election  is  some  ways  off,  anyhow.  No 
concealment  among  pals,  now,  Al,  it's  no  fair,  you 
know,  and  it  destroys  confidence  and  breeds  discord. 
Many  a  good,  honest,  piratical  enterprise  has  been 
busted  up  by  concealment  and  lack  of  confidence. 
Always  trust  your  fellow  pirates, — especially  in 
things  they  know  all  about  by  extrinsic  evidence, — 
and  keep  concealment  for  the  great  world  of  the 
unsophisticated  and  gullible,  and  to  catch  the  sucker 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    25 

vote  with.  But  among  ourselves,  my  beloved, 
fidelity  to  truth,  and  openness  of  heart  is  the  first 
rule,  right  out  of  Hoyle.  With  dry  powder,  mutual 
confidence,  and  sharp  cutlasses,  we  are  invincible; 
and  as  the  poet  saith, 

"  '  Far  as  the  tum-te-tum  the  billows  foam 
Survey  our  empire  and  behold  our  home,' 

or  words  to  that  effect.  And  to  think  of  your  trying 
to  deceive  me,  your  former  chieftain,  who  doesn't 
even  vote  in  your  county  or  state,  and  moreover 
always  forgets  election!  Rob-ee  indeed!  rats!  Al, 
I'm  ashamed  of  you,  by  George,  I  am!" 

TKis  speech  he  delivered  with  a  ridiculous  imita 
tion  of  the  tricks  of  the  elocutionist.  It  was  worthy 
of  the  burlesque  stage.  The  conductor,  passing 
through,  was  attracted  by  it,  and  notified  us  that  the 
solitude  of  the  smoking-room  had  been  invaded,  by 
a  slight  burst  of  applause  at  Jim's  peroration,  followed 
by  the  vanishing  of  the  audience. 

"No  need  for  any  further  concealment  on  my 
part,  so  far  as  elections  are  concerned,"  said  I,  when 
we  had  finished  our  laugh,  "for  I  go  out  of  office 
January  first,  next." 

"Oh,  well,  that  accounts  for  it,  then,"  said  he.  "I 
notice,  say,  three  kinds  of  retirement  from  office: 
voluntary  (very  rare),  post-convention,  and  post 
election.  Which  is  yours?" 

"Post-convention,  I'm  sorry  to  say.  I  wish  it  had 
been  voluntary." 

"It  is  the  cheapest;  but  you're  in  great  luck  not 
to  get  licked  at  the  polls.  Altogether,  you're  in 


26    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

great  luck.  You've  been  betting  on  a  game  in  which 
the  percentage  is  mighty  big  in  favor  of  the  house, 
and  you've  won  three  or  four  consecutive  turns  out 
of  the  box.  You've  got  no  kick  coming:  you're  in 
big  luck.  Don't  you  know  you  are?" 

I  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  commit  myself;  and 
we  smoked  on  for  some  time  in  silence. 

"It  strikes  me,  Jim,"  said  I,  at  last,  "that  you've 
done  all  the  cross-examination,  and  that  it  is  time 
to  listen  to  your  report.  How  about  you  and  your 
conduct?" 

"As  for  my  conduct,"  was  the  prompt  answer,  "it's 
away  up  in  the  neighborhood  of  G.  I've  managed  to 
hold  the  confounded  world  up  for  a  living,  ever  since 
I  left  Pleasant  Valley  Township.  Some  of  the  time 
the  picking  has  been  better  than  at  others;  but  my 
periods  of  starvation  have  been  brief.  By  prac 
ticing  on  the  '  Veterinarians'  Guide'  and  other  similar 
fakes,  I  learned  how  to  talk  to  people  so  as  to  make 
them  believe  what  I  said  about  things,  with  the 
result,  usually,  of  wooing  the  shrinking  and  cloistered 
dollar  from  its  lair.  When  a  fellow  gets  this  trick 
down  fine,  he  can  always  find  a  market  for  his  ser 
vices.  I  handled  hotel  registers,  city  directories, 
and  like  literature,  including  county  histories — 

"Sh-h-h!"  said  I,  "somebody  might  hear  you." 

" — and  at  last,  after  a  conference  with  my  present 
employers,  the  error  of  my  way  presented  itself  to 
me,  and  I  felt  called  to  a  higher  and  holier  profession. 
I  yielded  to  my  good  angel,  turned  my  better  nature 
loose,  and  became  a  missionary." 

"A  what!"  I  exclaimed. 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    27 

"A  missionary,"  he  responded  soberly.  "That 
is,  you  understand,  not  one  of  these  theological, 
India's-coral-strand  guys;  but  one  who  goes  about 
the  United  States  of  America  in  a  modest  and 
unassuming  way,  doing  good  so  far  as  in  him 
lies." 

"I  see,"  said  I,  punning  horribly,  "  'in  him  lies.'" 

"Eh? .  .  .  Yes.  Have  another  cigar.  Well,  now, 
you  can't  defend  this  foreign-mission  business  to 
me  for  a  minute.  The  hills,  right  in  this  vicinity, 
are  even  now  white  to  the  harvest.  Folks  here 
want  the  light  just  as  bad  as  the  foreign  heathen; 
and  so  I  took  up  my  burden,  and  went  out  to  dissem 
inate  truth,  as  the  soliciting  agent  of  the  Frugality 
and  Indemnity  Life  Association,  which  presented  itself 
to  me  as  the  capacity  in  which  I  could  best  combine 
repentance  with  its  fruits." 

"I  perceive,"  said  I. 

"Perfectly  plain,  isn't  it,  to  the  seeing  eye?"  he 
went  on.  "  You  see  it  was  like  this :  Charley  Harper 
and  I  had  been  together  in  the  Garden  City  Land 
Company,  years  ago,  during  the  boom — by  the 
way,  I  didn't  mention  that  in  my  report,  did  I? 
Well,  of  course,  that  company  went  up  just  as  they 
all  did,  and  neither  Charley  nor  I  got  to  be  receiver, 
as  we'd  sort  of  laid  out  to  do,  and  we  separated.  I 
went  back  to  my  literature — hotel  registers,  with  an 
advertising  scheme,  with  headquarters  at  Cleveland. 
That's  how  I  happened  to  be  an  Ohio  man  at  that 
national  convention.  Charley  always  had  a  leaning 
toward  insurance,  and  went  down  into  Illinois,  and 
started  a  mutual-benefit  organization,  which  he  kept 


28    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

going  a  few  years  down  on  the  farm— Springfield,  or 
Jacksonville,  or  somewhere  down  there;  and  when 
I  ketched  up  with  him  again,  he  was  just  changing 
it  to  the  old-line  plan,  and  bringing  it  to  the  metropolis. 
Well,  I  helped  him  some  to  enlist  capital,  and  he 
offered  me  the  position  of  Superintendent  of  Agents. 
I  accepted,  and  after  serving  awhile  in  the  ranks  to 
sort  of  get  onto  the  ropes,  here  I  am,  just  starting  out 
on  a  trip  which  will  take  me  through  a  number  of 
states." 

"How  does  it  agree  with  you?"  I  inquired. 

"Not  well,"  said  he,  "but  the  good  I  accomplish 
is  a  great  comfort  to  me.  On  this  trip,  now,  I 
expect  to  do  much  in  the  way  of  stimulating  the 
boys  up  to  their  great  work  of  spreading  the  light 
of  the  gospel  of  true  insurance.  Sometimes,  in 
these  days  of  apathy  and  error,  I  find  my  burden  a 
heavy  one;  and  notwithstanding  the  quiet  of  con 
science  I  gain,  if  it  weren't  for  the  salary,  I'd  quit 
to-morrow,  Al,  danged  if  I  wouldn't.  It  makes  me 
tired  to  have  even  you  sort  of  hint  that  I'm  actuated 
by  some  selfish  motive,  when,  in  truth  and  in  fact, 
I  live  but  to  gather  widows  and  orphans  under  my 
wing,  so  to  speak,  and  give  second  husbands  a  good 
start,  by  means  of  policies  written  on  the  only  true 
plan,  combining  participation  in  profits  with  pure 
mutuality,  and — 

"Never  mind!"  said  I  with  a  silence-commanding 
gesture.  "I've  heard  all  that  before.  You're  onto 
the  ropes  thoroughly;  but  don't  practice  your 
infernal  arts  on  me!  I  hope  the  salary  is  satisfac 
tory?" 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    29 

"Fairish;  but  not  high,  considering  what  they  get 
for  it." 

"You  used  to  be  more  modest,"  said  I.  "I  re 
member  that  you  once  nearly  broke  your  heart 
because  you  couldn't  summon  up  courage  to  ask 
Creeshy  Hammond  to  go  to  the  'Fourth'  with  you; 
d'ye  remember?" 

"Well,  I  guess,  yes!"  he  replied.  "Wasn't  I  a 
miserable  wretch  for  a  few  days!  And  I've  never 
been  able  to  ask  any  woman  I  cared  about,  the  fate 
ful  question,  yet." 

We  went  into  the  parlor-car,  and  talked  over  old 
times  and  new  for  an  hour.  I  told  him  of  my  mar 
riage  and  my  home,  and  I  studied  him.  I  saw  that  he 
still  preserved  his  humorous,  mock-serious  style  of 
conversation,  and  that  his  hand-to-hand  battle 
with  the  world  had  made  him  good-humoredly 
cynical.  He  evinced  a  knowledge  of  more  things 
than  I  should  have  expected;  and  had  somehow 
acquired  an  imposing  manner,  in  spite  of  his  rather 
slangy,  if  expressive,  vocabulary.  He  had  the 
power  of  making  statements  of  mere  opinion,  which, 
from  some  vibration  of  voice  or  trick  of  expression, 
struck  the  hearer  as  solid  facts,  thrice  buttressed  by 
evidence.  He  bore  no  marks  of  dissipation,  unless 
the  occasional  use  of  terms  traceable  to  the  turf  or  the 
gaming-table  might  be  considered  such;  but  these 
expressions,  I  considered,  are  so  constantly  before 
every  reader  of  the  newspapers  that  the  language 
of  the  pulpit,  even,  is  infected  by  them.  Their  evi 
dential  value  being  thus  destroyed,  they  ought  not 
to  be  weighed  at  all,  as  against  firm,  wholesome 


30    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

flesh,  a  good  complexion,  and  a  clear  eye,  all  of  which 
Mr.  Elkins  possessed. 

"It's  funny,"  said  I,  "how  seldom  I  meet  any  of  the 
old  neighbor-boys.  Do  you  see  any  of  them  in  your 
travels?" 

"Not  often,"  he  answered,  "but  you  remember 
little  Ed  Smith,  who  lived  on  the  Hayes  place  for  a 
while,  and  brought  the  streaked  snake  into  the 
schoolhouse  while  Julia  Fanning  was  teaching? 
Well,  he  was  an  architect  at  Garden  City,  and 
lives  in  Chicago  now.  We  sort  of  chum  together: 
saw  him  yesterday.  He  left  Garden  City  when  the 
land  company  went  up.  I  tell  you,  that  was  a  hot 
town  for  a  while!  Railroads,  and  factories,  and  irri 
gation  schemes,  and  prices  scooting  toward  the 
zenith,  till  you  couldn't  rest.  If  I'd  got  into  that 
push  soon  enough,  I  shouldn't  have  made  a  thing 
but  money;  as  it  was,  I  didn't  lose  only  what  I  had. 
A  good  many  of  the  boys  lost  a  lot  more.  But  I  tell 
you,  Al,  a  boom  properly  boomed  is  a  sure  thing." 

"You're  a  constant  source  of  surprise  to  me,  Jim," 
said  I.  "I  should  have  thought  them  sure  to  lose." 

"They're  sure  to  win,"  said  he  earnestly. 

I  demurred.  "I  don't  see  how  that  can  possibly 
be,"  said  I,  "for  of  all  things,  booms  seem  to  me  the 
most  fickle  and  incalculable." 

"They  seem  so,"  said  he,  smiling,  but  still  in 
earnest,  "to  your  rustic  and  untaught  mind,  and  to 
most  others,  because  they  haven't  been  studied. 
The  comet,  likewise,  doesn't  seem  very  stable  or 
dependable;  but  to  the  eye  of  the  astronomer  its 
orbit  is  plain,  and  the  time  of  its  return  engagement 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    31 

pretty  certain.  It's  the  same  with  seventeen-year 
locusts — and  booms ;  their  visits  are  so  far  apart  that 
the  masses  forget  their  birthmarks  and  the  W's  on 
their  backs.  But  if  you'll  follow  their  appearances 
from  place  to  place,  as  I've  done,  putting  up  my  ante 
right  along  for  the  privilege,  you'll  become  an  accom 
plished  boomist;  and  from  the  first  gentle  stirrings 
of  boom-sprouts  in  the  soil,  so  to  speak,  you  can  fore 
cast  their  growth,  maturity,  and  collapse." 

"I  must  be  permitted  to  doubt  it,"  said  I. 

"It's  easy,  my  son,"  he  resumed,  "dead  easy, 
and  it's  psychology  on  the  hugest  scale;  and  among 
the  results  of  its  study  is  constant  improvement  of  the 
mind,  going  on  coincidentally  with  the  preparation 
of  the  way  to  the  ownership  of  steam-yachts  and 
racing-stables,  or  any  other  similar  trifles  you  hanker 
for." 

"Great  brain,  Jim!  Massive  intellect!"  said  I, 
laughing  at  the  fantastic  absurdity  of  his  assertion. 
"Why,  such  knowledge  as  you  possess  is  better 
than  straight  tips  on  all  the  races  ever  to  be  run. 
It's  better  than  our  tropical  island  and  Spanish 
galleons.  You  get  richer,  and  you  don't  have  to 
look  out  for  men-of-war.  Do  I  hold  my  job  as 
Grand  Vizier?" 

"You  hold  any  job  you'll  take:  I'll  make  out  the 
appointment  with  the  position  and  salary  blank, 
and  you  can  fill  it  up.  And  if  you  get  dissatisfied 
with  that,  the  old  grand  hailing-sign  of  distress  will 
catch  the  speaker's  eye,  any  old  time.  But,  I  tell  you, 
Al,  in  all  seriousness,  I'm  right  about  this  boom  busi 
ness.  They're  all  alike,  and  they  all  have  the  same 


32    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

history.  With  the  conditions  right,  one  can  be  started 
anywhere  in  a  growing  country.  I've  had  my  ear 
to  the  ground  for  a  while  back,  and  I've  heard  things. 
I'm  sure  I  detect  sortie  of  the  premonitory  symptoms: 
money  piling  up  in  the  financial  centers;  property 
away  down,  but  strengthening,  in  the  newer  regions; 
and,  lately,  a  little  tendency  to  take  chances  in  invest 
ments,  forgetting  the  scorching  of  ten  or  twelve 
years  ago.  A  new  generation  of  suckers  is  gettin' 
ready  to  bite.  Look  into  this  thing,  Al,  and  don't  be 
a  chump." 

"The  same  old  Jim,"  said  I;  "you  were  manipu 
lating  a  corner  in  tobacco-tags  while  I  was  learning 
my  letters." 

"Do  you  ever  forget  anything?"  he  inquired.  "I 
have  about  forgotten  that  myself.  How  was  that 
tobacco-tag  business,  Al?" 

Then  with  the  painstaking  circumstantiality  of 
two  old  schoolmates  luxuriating  in  memories,  we 
talked  over  the  tobacco-tag  craze  which  swept 
through  our  school  one  winter.  Everything  in  life 
takes  place  in  school,  and  the  "tobacco-tag  craze" 
has  quite  often  recurred  to  me  as  showing  boys 
acting  just  as  men  act,  and  Jimmie  Elkins  as  the  born 
stormy  petrel  of  financial  seas. 

It  all  came  back  to  our  minds,  and  we  reconstructed 
this  story.  The  manufacturers  of  "Tomahawk 
Plug"  had  offered  a  dozen  photographs  of  actresses 
and  dancers  to  any  one  sending  in  a  certain  number 
of  the  tin  hatchets  concealed  in  their  tobacco.  The 
makers  of  "Broad-axe  Navy"  offered  something 
equally  cheap  and  alluring  for  consignments  of  their 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    33 

brass  broad-axes.  The  older  boys  began  collecting 
photographs,  and  a  market  for  tobacco-tags  of  cer 
tain  kinds  was  established.  We  little  fellows,  though 
without  knowledge  of  the  mysterious  forces  which 
had  given  value  to  these  bits  of  metal,  began  to  pick 
up  stray  tags  from  sidewalk,  foot-path,  and  floor.  A 
marked  upward  tendency  soon  manifested  itself. 
Boys  found  their  "Broad-axe"  or  "Door-key"  tags, 
picked  up  at  night,  doubled  in  value  by  morning. 
The  primary  object  in  collecting  tags  was  forgotten 
in  the  speculative  mania  which  set  in.  Who  would 
exchange  "Tomahawk"  tags  for  the  counterfeit 
presentment  of  decollete"  dancers,  when  by  holding 
them  he  could  make  cent-per-cent  on  his  investment 
of  hazel-nuts  and  slate-pencils  ? 

The  playground  became  a  Board  of  Trade.  We 
learned  nothing  but  mental  arithmetic  applied  to 
deals  in  "Door-keys,"  "Arrow-heads,"  and  other 
tag  properties.  We  went  about  with  pockets  full  of 
tags. 

Jim,  not  yet  old  enough  to  admire  the  beauties 
of  the  photographs,  came  forward  in  a  week  as  the 
Napoleon  of  tobacco-tag  finance.  He  acquired  tags 
in  the  slumps,  and  sold  them  in  the  bulges.  He 
raided  particular  brands  with  rumors  of  the  vast 
supply  with  which  the  village  boys  were  preparing 
to  flood  us.  He  converted  his  holdings  into  marbles 
and  tops.  Finally,  he  planned  his  master-stroke. 
He  dropped  mysterious  hints  regarding  some  tag 
considered  worthless.  He  asked  us  in  whispers  if 
we  had  any.  Others  followed  his  example,  and 
"Door-key"  tags  went  above  all  others  and  were 


34    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

scarce  at  any  price.  Then  Jimmie  Elkins  brought 
out  the  supply  which  he  had  "cornered,"  threw  it 
on  the  market,  and  before  it  had  time  to  drop  took 
in  a  large  part  of  the  playground  currency.  I  lost  to 
him  a  good  drawing-slate  and  a  figure-4  trap. 

Jimmie  pocketed  his  winnings,  but  the  trouble 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  teacher,  and  under 
adverse  legislation  a  period  of  liquidation  set  in. 
The  distress  was  great.  Many  found  themselves 
with  property  which  was  not  convertible  into  photo 
graphs  or  anything  else.  To  make  matters  worse, 
the  discovery  was  made  that  the  big  boys  had  left 
school  to  begin  the  spring's  work,  and  no  one  wanted 
the  photographs.  Bankrupt  and  disillusioned,  we  re 
turned  to  the  realities  of  kites,  marbles,  and  knives, 
most  of  which  we  had  to  obtain  from  Jimmie  Elkins. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "it's  a  good  deal  the  same  with 
booms.  But  if  you  understand  'em  .  .  .  eh,  Al?" 

"Well,"  said  I,  really  impressed  now,  "I'll  look 
into  it.  And  when  you  get  ready  to  sow  your  boom- 
seed,  let  me  know.  I  change  cars  in  a  few  minutes, 
and  you  go  on.  Come  down  and  see  me  sometimes, 
can't  you?  We  haven't  had  our  talk  half  out  yet. 
Doesn't  your  business  ever  bring  you  down  our  way?" 

"  It  hasn't  yet,  but  I'm  coming  down  into  that  neck 
of  the  woods  within  six  weeks,  and  I  guess  I  can  fix 
it  so's  to  stop  off, — mingling  pleasure  and  business. 
It's  the  only  way  the  hustling  philanthropist  of  my 
style  ever  gets  any  recreation." 

"Do  it,"  said  I;  "I'll  have  plenty  of  time  at  my 
disposal;  for  I  go  out  of  office  before  that  time; 
and  I  may  want  to  go  into  your  boom -hatchery." 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    35 

"On  the  theory  that  the  great  adversary  of  man 
kind  runs  an  employment  agency  for  ex's?  There's 
the  whistle  for  your  junction.  By  George,  Al,  I 
can't  tell  you  how  glad  I  am  to  have  ketched  up 
with  you  again!  I've  wondered  about  you  a  million 
times.  Don't  let's  lose  track  of  each  other  again." 

"No,  no,  Jim,  we  won't!"  The  train  was  coming 
to  a  stop.  "Don't  allow  anything  to  side-track  you 
and  prevent  that  visit." 

"Well,  I  should  say  not,"  he  answered,  following 
me  out  upon  the  platform  of  the  station.  "We'll 
have  a  regular  piratical  reunion — a  sort  of  bucca 
neers'  camp-fire.  I've  a  curiosity  to  see  some  of  the 
fellows  who  acted  the  part  of  rob-or  to  your  rob-ee. 
I  want  to  hear  their  side  of  the  story.  Good-by, 
Al.  Confound  it,  I  wish  you  were  going  on  with  me ! " 

He  wrung  my  hand  at  part'ing,  reminding  me  of 
the  old  Jim  who  studied  from  the  same  geography 
with  me,  more  than  at  any  time  since  we  met.  He 
stayed  with  me  until  after  his  train  had  started, 
caught  hold  of  the  hand-rail  as  the  rear  car  went 
by,  and  passed  out  of  view,  waving  his  hand  to 
me. 

I  sat  down  on  a  baggage-truck  waiting  for  my 
train,  thinking  of  my  encounter  with  Jim.  All  the 
way  home  I  was  busy  pondering  over  a  thousand 
things  thus  suddenly  recalled  to  me.  I  could  see 
every  fence-corner  and  barn,  every  hill  and  stream 
of  our  old  haunts ;  and  after  I  got  home  I  told  Alice  all 
about  it. 

"  He  seems  quite  a  remarkable  fellow,"  said  I,  "  and 
a  perfect  specimen  of  the  pusher  and  hustler — a 


36    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

quick-witted  man  of  affairs.  If  he  is  ever  put  down, 
he  can't  be  kept  down." 

"I  think  I  prefer  a  more  refined  type  of  man," 
said  Alice. 

"In  the  sixteenth  century,"  I  went  on  with  that 
excessive  perspicacity  which  our  wives  have  to  put 
up  with,  "he'd  have  been  a  Drake  or  a  Dampier; 
in  the  seventeenth,  the  commander  of  a  privateer 
or  slaver;  in  this  age,  I  shall  not  be  at  all  surprised 
if  he  turns  out  a  great  railway  or  financial  magnate. 
It's  like  a  whiff  of  boyhood  to  talk  with  him;  though 
he's  a  greatly  different  sort  of  man  from  what  I  should 
have  expected  to  find  him.  I  think  you'll  like  him." 

She  seemed  dubious  about  this.  Our  wives  in 
stinctively  disapprove  of  people  we  used  to  know 
prior  to  that  happy  meeting  which  led  to  marriage. 
This  prejudice,  for  some  reason,  is  stronger  against 
our  feminine  acquaintances  than  the  others.  I  am 
not  analytical  enough  to  do  more  than  point  out 
this  feeling,  which  will,  I  think,  be  admitted  by  all 
husbands  to  exist. 

"That  sort  of  man,"  said  she,  "lacks  the  qualities 
of  bravery  and  intrepidity  which  make  up  a  Drake 
or  a  Dampier.  They  are  so  a — scheming  and  calcu 
lating!" 

"The  last  time  I  saw  Jim  until  to-day,"  said  I, 
"he  did  something  which  seems  to  show  that  he  had 
those  more  admirable  qualities." 

Then  I  told  her  that  story  of  Jim  and  the  mad  dog, 
which  is  remembered  in  Pleasant  Valley  to  this  day. 
Some  say  the  dog  was  not  mad;  but  I,  who  saw  his 
terrible,  insane  look  as  he  came  snapping  and  froth- 


Reminiscentially  Autobiographical.    37 

ing  down  the  road,  believe  that  he  was.  Jim  had 
left  the  school  for  a  year  or  so,  and  I  was  a  "big  boy" 
ready  to  leave  it.  It  was  at  four  one  afternoon, 
and  as  the  children  filed  into  the  road,  there  met 
them  the  shouts  of  men  and  cries  of  "Run!  Run! 
Mad  dog!" 

The  children  scattered  like  a  covey  of  quail; 
but  a  pair  of  little  five-year-olds,  forgotten  by  the 
others,  walked  on  hand  in  hand,  looking  into  each 
other's  faces,  right  toward  the  poor  crazed,  hunted 
brute,  which  trotted  slowly  toward  the  children, 
gnashing  its  frothing  jaws  at  sticks  and  weeds,  at 
everything  it  met,  ready  to  bury  its  teeth  in  the  first 
baby  to  come  within  reach. 

A  young  man  with  a  canvasser's  portfolio  stood 
behind  a  fence  over  which  he  had  jumped  to  avoid 
the  dog.  Suddenly  he  saw  the  children,  knew  their 
danger,  and  leaped  back  into  the  road.  It  was  like 
a  bull-fighter  vaulting  the  barriers  into  the  perils  of 
the  arena, — only  it  was  to  save,  not  to  destroy.  The 
dog  had  passed  him  and  was  nearer  the  children 
than  he  was.  I  wondered  what  he  expected  to  do 
as  I  saw  him  running  lightly,  swiftly,  and  yet  quietly 
behind  the  terrible  beast.  As  he  neared  the  animal, 
he  stooped,  and  my  blood  froze  as  I  saw  him  seize 
the  dog  with  both  hands  by  the  hinder  legs.  The 
head  curled  sidewise  and  under,  and  the  teeth 
almost  grazed  the  young  man's  hands  with  a  vicious, 
metallic  snap.  Then  we  saw  what  the  contest  was. 
The  young  man,  with  a  powerful  circling  sweep  of 
his  arms,  whirled  the  dog  so  swiftly  about  his  head 
that  the  lank  frame  swung  out  in  a  straight  line,  and 


38    Reminiscentially  Autobiographical. 

the  snap  could  not  be  repeated.  But  what  of  the 
end?  No  muscles  could  long  stand  such  a  strain,  and 
when  they  yielded,  then  what? 

Then  we  saw  that  as  he  swung  his  loathsome  foe, 
the  young  man  was  gradually  approaching  the  school- 
house.  We  saw  the  horrible  snapping  head  whirl 
nearer  and  nearer  at  every  turn  to  the  corner  of  the 
building.  Then  we  saw  the  young  man  strike  a 
terrible  blow  at  the  stone  wall,  using  the  dog  as  a 
club;  and  in  a  moment  I  saw  the  stones  splashed 
with  red,  and  the  young  man  lying  on  the  ground, 
where  the  violence  of  his  effort  had  thrown  him, 
and  by  him  lay  the  quivering  form  of  what  we  had 
fled  from.  And  the  young  man  was  James  Elkins. 

Alice  breathed  hard  as  I  finished,  and  stood  straight 
with  her  chin  held  high. 

"That  was  fine!"  said  she.  "I  want  to  see  that 
man!" 


CHAPTER  IV. 
3im  discovers  bis  Coral  f  slanO. 

THERE  has  long  been  abroad  in  the  world  a  belief 
that  events  which  bear  some  controlling  relation 
to  one's  destiny  are  announced  by  premonition, 
some  spiritual  trepidation,  some  movement  of  that 
curtain  which  cuts  off  our  view  of  the  future.  I 
believe  this  notion  to  be  false,  but  feel  that  it  is 
true;  and  the  manner  in  which  that  adventure 
of  mine  in  the  old  art  gallery  and  at  Auriccio's 
impressed  my  mind,  and  the  way  in  which  my  memory 
clung  to  it,  seem  to  justify  my  feeling  rather  than 
my  belief.  Whenever  I  visited  Chicago,  I  went  to 
the  gallery,  more  in  the  hope  of  seeing  the  girl  whose 
only  name  to  me  was  "the  Empress  "  than  to  gratify 
my  cravings  for  art.  I  felt  a  boundless  pity  for  her 
— and  laughed  at  myself  for  taking  so  seriously  an  inci 
dent  which,  in  all  likelihood,  she  herself  dismissed 
with  a  few  tears,  a  few  retrospective  burnings  of 
heart  and  cheek.  But  I  never  saw  her.  Once  I 
loitered  for  an  hour  about  the  boarding-house  with 
the  vine-clad  porch,  while  the  boarders  (mostly 
students,  I  judged)  came  and  went;  but  though  I 

39 


40        Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island. 

saw  many  young  girls,  the  Empress  was  not  among 
them.  And  all  this  time  the  years  were  rolling  on, 
and  I  was  permitting  my  once  bright  political  career 
to  blight  and  wither  by  my  own  neglect,  as  a  growth 
not  worth  caring  for. 

I  became  a  private  citizen  in  due  time,  but  found 
no  comfort  in  leisure.  I  was  in  those  doldrums 
which  beset  the  politician  when  rivals  justle  him 
from  his  little  eminence.  One  who,  for  years,  is 
annually  or  biennially  complimented  by  the  suf 
frages  of  even  a  few  thousands  of  his  fellow  citizens, 
and  is  invited  into  the  penetralia  of  a  great  political 
party,  is  apt  to  regard  himself,  after  a  while,  as  pecu 
liarly  deserving  of  the  plaudits  of  the  humble  and 
the  consideration  of  the  powerful.  Then  comes  the 
inevitable  hour  when  pussy  finds  himself  without  a 
corner.  The  deep  disgust  for  party  and  politics 
which  then  takes  possession  of  him  demands  change 
of  scene  and  new  surroundings.  Any  flagging  in 
partisan  enthusiasm  is  sure  to  be  attributed  to  sore- 
headedness,  and  leads  to  charges  of  perfidy  and 
thanklessness.  Yet,  for  him,  the  choice  lies  between 
abated  zeal  and  hypocrisy,  inasmuch  as  no  man  can 
normally  be  as  zealous  for  his  party  as  the  fanatic 
into  which  the  candidate  or  incumbent  converts  him 
self. 

Underlying  my  whole  frame  of  mind  was  the 
knowledge  that,  so  far  as  making  a  career  was  con 
cerned,  I  had  wasted  several  years  of  my  life,  and  had 
now  to  begin  anew.  Add  to  this  a  slight  sense  of 
having  played  an  unworthy  part  in  life  (although 
here  I  was  unable  to  particularize),  and  a  new  sense 


Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island.       41 

of  aloofness  from  the  people  with  whom  I  had  been 
for  so  long  on  terms  of  hearty  and  back-slapping 
familiarity,  and  no  further  reason  need  be  sought  for 
a  desire  which  came  mightily  upon  me  to  go  away 
and  begin  life  over  again  in  a  new  milieu.  In  spite 
of  the  mild  opposition  of  my  wife,  this  desire  grew 
to  a  resolve;  and  I  came  to  look  upon  myself  as  a 
temporary  sojourner  in  my  own  home. 

Such  was  the  state  of  our  affairs,  when  a  letter 
came  from  Mr.  Elkins  (in  lieu  of  the  promised  visit) 
urging  me  to  remove  to  the  then  obscure  but  since 
celebrated  town  of  Lattimore. 

"I  got  to  be  too  rich  for  Charley  Harper's  blood," 
said  the  letter,  among  other  things.  "I  wanted  as 
much  in  the  way  of  salary  as  I  could  earn,  working 
for  myself,  and  Charley  kicked — said  the  directors 
wouldn't  consent,  and  that  such  a  salary  list  would 
be  a  black  eye  for  the  Frugality  and  Indemnity  if 
it  showed  up  in  its  statements.  So  I  quit.  I  am 
loan  agent  for  the  company  here,  which  gives  me  a 
visible  means  of  support,  and  keeps  me  from  being 
vagged.  But,  in  confidence,  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  my  main  graft  here  is  the  putting  in  operation 
of  my  boom-hatching  scheme.  Come  out,  and  I'll 
enroll  you  as  a  member  of  the  band  once  more ;  for  this 
is  the  coral  atoll  for  me.  You  ought  to  get  out  of 
that  stagnant  pond  of  yours,  and  come  where  the 
natatory  medium  is  fresh,  clean,  and  thickly  peopled 
with  suckers,  and  a  new  run  of  'em  coming  on  right 
soon.  In  other  words,  get  into  the  swim." 

After  reading  this  letter  and  considering  it  as  a 
whole,  I  was  so  much  impressed  by  it  that  Lattimore 


42        Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island. 

was  added  to  the  list  of  places  I  meant  to  visit,  on  a 
tour  I  had  planned  for  myself. 

In  the  West,  all  roads  run  to  or  from  Chicago.  It 
is  nearer  to  almost  any  place  by  the  way  of  Chicago 
than  by  any  other  route:  so  Alice  and  I  went  to  the 
city  by  the  lake,  as  tbe  beginning  of  our  prospecting 
tour.  I  took  her  to  the  art  gallery  and  showed  her 
just  where  my  two  lovers  had  stood, — telling  her  the 
story  for  the  first  time.  Then  she  wanted  to  eat  a 
supper  at  Auriccio's;  and  after  the  play  we  went 
there,  and  I  was  forced  to  describe  the  whole  scene 
over  again. 

"Didn't  she  see  you  at  all?"  she  asked. 

"Not  at  all,"  said  I. 

"You  are  a  good  boy,"  said  my  wife,  judging  me 
by  one  act  which  she  approved.  "Kiss  me." 

This  occurred  after  we  reached  our  lodgings.  I 
suggested  as  a  change  of  subject  that  my  next  day's 
engagements  took  me  to  the  Stock  Yards,  and  I 
assumed  that  she  would  scarcely  wish  to  accom 
pany  me. 

"I  think  I  prefer  the  stores,"  said  she,  "and  the 
pictures.  Maybe  7  shall  have  an  adventure." 

At  the  big  Exchange  Building,  I  found  that  the 
acquaintance  whom  I  sought  was  absent  from  his 
office,  and  I  roamed  up  and  down  the  corridors  in 
search  of  him.  As  usual  the  gathering  here  was 
intensely  Western.  There  were  bronzed  cattlemen 
from  every  range  from  Amarillo  to  the  Belle  Fourche, 
sturdy  buyers  of  swine  from  Iowa  and  Illinois,  som- 
breroed  sheepmen  from  New  Mexico,  and  vikingesque 
Swedes  from  North  Dakota.  Men  there  were  wear- 


Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island.       43 

ing  thousand -dollar  diamonds  in  red  flannel  shirts, 
solid  gold  watch-chains  made  to  imitate  bridle -bits, 
and  heavy  golden  bullocks  sliding  on  horse-hair 
guards.  It  pleased  me,  as  such  a  crowd  always 
does.  The  laughter  was  loud  but  it  was  free,  and 
the  hunted  look  one  sees  on  State  Street  and  Mich 
igan  Avenue  was  absent. 

"I  wish  Alice  had  come,"  said  I,  noting  the  nutter 
of  skirts  in  a  group  of  people  in  the  corridor;  and 
then,  as  I  came  near,  the  press  divided,  and  I  saw 
something  which  drew  my  eyes  as  to  a  sight  in  which 
lay  mystery  to  be  unraveled. 

Facing  me  stood  a  stout  farmer  in  a  dark  suit  of 
common  cut  and  texture.  He  seemed,  somehow, 
not  entirely  strange;  but  the  petite  figure  of  the 
girl  whose  back  was  turned  to  me  was  what  fixed 
my  attention. 

She  wore  a  smart  traveling-gown  of  some  pretty 
gray  fabric,  and  bore  herself  gracefully  and  with  the 
air  of  dominating  the  group  of  commission  men  among 
whom  she  stood.  I  noted  the  incurved  spine,  the 
deep  curves  of  the  waist,  and  the  liberal  slope  of  the 
hips  belonging  to  a  shapely  little  woman  in  whom 
slimness  was  mitigated  in  adorable  ways,  which  in 
some  remote  future  bade  fair  to  convert  it  into 
matronliness.  Under  a  broad  hat  there  showed  a 
wealth  of  red-brown  hair,  drawn  up  like  a  sunburst 
from  a  slender  little  neck. 

"I  have  provided  a  box  at  Hooley's,"  said  the 
head  of  a  great  commission  firm.  "Mrs.  Johnson 
will  be  with  us.  We  may  count  upon  you?" 


44       Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island. 

"I  think  so,"  said  the  girl,  "if  papa  hasn't  made 
any  engagements." 

The  stout  farmer  blushed  as  he  looked  down  at  his 
daughter. 

"Engagements,  eh?  No,  sir!"  he  replied.  "She 
runs  things  after  the  steers  is  unloaded.  Whatever 
the  little  gal  says  goes  with  me." 

They  turned,  and  as  they  came  on  down  the  hall, 
still  chatting,  I  saw  her  face,  and  knew  it.  It  was 
the  Empress!  But  even  in  that  glimpse  I  saw 
the  change  which  years  had  brought.  Now  she 
ruled  instead  of  submitting;  her  voice,  still  soft  and 
low,  had  lost  its  rustic  inflections ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
change  in  the  surroundings, — the  leap  from  the  art 
gallery  to  the  Stock  Yards, — there  was  more  of  the 
artist  now,  and  less  of  the  farmer's  lass.  They 
turned  into  a  suite  of  offices  and  disappeared. 

"Well,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  my  friend,  coming  up. 
"Glad  to  see  you.  I've  been  hunting  for  you." 

"Who  is  that  girl  and  her  father?"  I  asked. 

"One  of  the  Johnson  Commission  Company's 
Shippers,"  said  he,  "Prescott,  from  Lattimore;  I 
wish  I  could  get  his  shipments." 

"No!"  said  I,  "Not  Lattimore!" 

"Prescott  of  Lattimore,"  he  repeated.  "Know 
anything  of  him?" 

"N-no,"  said  I.     "I  have  friends  in  that  town." 

"I  wish  I  had,"  was  the  reply;  "I'd  try  to  get  old 
Prescott 's  business." 

"There's  destiny  in  this,"  said  Alice,  when  I  told 
her  of  my  encounter  with  the  Empress  and  her 


Jim  Discovers  his  Coral  Island.       45 

father.  "Her  living  in  Lattimore  is  not  an  acci 
dent." 

"I  doubt,"  said  I,  "if  anybody's  is." 

"She  looked  nice,  did  she?"  Alice  went  on,  "and 
dressed  well?"  and  without  waiting  for  an  answer 
added:  "Let's  leave  Chicago.  I'm  anxious  to  get 
to  Lattimore!" 


CHAPTER  V. 
TKle  IReacb  tbe  Htoll. 

So  we  journeyed  on  to  Duluth,  to  St.  Paul  and 
Minneapolis,  and  to  the  cities  on  the  Missouri.  It 
was  at  one  of  those  recurrent  periods  when  the 
fever  of  material  and  industrial  change  and  develop 
ment  breaks  out  over  the  whole  continent.  The 
very  earth  seemed  to  send  out  tingling  shocks  of 
some  occult  stimulus;  the  air  was  charged  with  the 
ozone  of  hope;  and  subtle  suggestions  seemed  to 
pass  from  mind  to  mind,  impelling  men  to  dare  all, 
to  risk  all,  to  achieve  all.  In  every  one  of  these 
young  cities  we  were  astonished  at  the  changes 
going  on  under  our  very  eyes.  Streets  were  torn  up 
for  the  building  of  railways,  viaducts,  and  tunnels. 
Buildings  were  everywhere  in  course  of  demolition, 
to  make  room  for  larger  edifices.  Excavations 
yawned  like  craters  at  street -corners.  Steel  pillars, 
girders,  and  trusses  towered  skyward, — skeletons  to 
be  clothed  in  flesh  of  brick  and  stone. 

Suburbs  were  sprouting,  almost  daily,  from  the 
mould  of  the  market-gardens  in  the  purlieus.  Cor 
porations  were  contending  for  the  possession  of  the 
natural  highway  approaches  to  each  growing  city. 

46 


We  Reach  the  Atoll.  47 

Street-railway  companies  pushed  their  charters  to 
passage  at  midnight  sessions  of  boards  of  aldermen, 
seized  streets  in  the  night-time,  and  extended  their 
metallic  tentacles  out  into  the  fields  of  dazed  farmers. 

On  the  frontiers,  counties  were  organized  and 
populated  in  a  season.  Every  one  of  them  had  its 
two  or  three  villages,  which  aped  in  puny  fashion  the 
achievements  of  the  cities.  New  pine  houses  dotted 
prairies,  unbroken  save  for  the  mile-long  score  of 
the  delimiting  plow.  Long  trains  of  emigrant-cars 
moved  continually  westward.  The  world  seemed 
drunk  with  hope  and  enthusiasm.  The  fulfillment 
of  Jim's  careless  prophecy  had  burst  suddenly  upon 
us. 

Such  things  as  these  were  fresh  in  our  memories 
when  we  reached  Lattimore.  I  had  wired  Elkins 
of  our  coming,  and  he  met  us  at  the  station  with  a 
carriage.  It  was  one  sunny  September  afternoon 
when  he  drove  us  through  the  streets  of  our  future 
home  to  the  principal  hotel. 

"We  have  supper  at  six,  dinner  at  twelve-thirty, 
breakfast  from  seven  to  ten,"  said  Jim,  as  we  alighted 
at  the  hotel.  "That's  the  sort  of  bucolic  municipal 
ity  you've  struck  here;  we'll  shove  all  these  meals 
several  hours  down,  when  we  get  to  doubling  our 
population.  You'll  have  an  hour  to  get  freshened 
up  for  supper.  Afterwards,  if  Mrs.  Barslow  feels 
equal  to  the  exertion,  we'll  take  a  drive  about  the 
town." 

Lattimore  was  a  pretty  place  then.  Low,  rounded 
hills  topped  with  green  surrounded  it.  The  river 
flowed  in  a  broad,  straight  reach  along  its  southern 


48  We  Reach  the  Atoll. 

margin.  A  clear  stream,  Brushy  Creek,  ran  in  a 
miniature  canyon  of  limestone,  through  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  town.  On  each  side  of  this  brook,  in 
lawns  of  vivid  green,  amid  natural  groves  of  oak 
and  elm,  interspersed  with  cultivated  greenery, 
stood  the  houses  of  the  well-to-do.  Trees  made  early 
twilight  in  most  of  the  streets. 

People  were  out  in  numbers,  driving  in  the  cool 
autumnal  evening.  As  a  handsome  girl,  a  splendid 
blonde,  drove  past  us,  my  wife  spoke  of  the  excellent 
quality  of  the  horseflesh  we  saw.  Jim  answered 
that  Lattimore  was  a  center  of  equine  culture,  and 
its  citizens  wise  in  breeders'  lore.  The  appearance 
of  things  impressed  us  favorably.  There  was  an  air 
of  quiet  prosperity  about  the  place,  which  is  unusual 
in  Western  towns,  where  quietude  and  progress  are 
apt  to  be  thought  incompatible.  Jim  pointed  out 
the  town's  natural  advantages  as  we  drove  along. 

"What  do  you  think  of  that,  now?"  said  he,  wav 
ing  his  whip  toward  the  winding  gorge  of  Brushy 
Creek. 

"It's  simply  lovely!"  said  Alice,  "a  little  jewel  of 
a  place." 

"A  bit  of  mountain  scenery  on  the  prairie,"  said 
Jim.  "And  more  than  that,  or  less  than  that,  just 
as  you  look  at  it,  it's  the  source  from  which  inex 
haustible  supplies  of  stone  will  be  quarried  when  we 
begin  to  build  things." 

"But  won't  that  spoil  it?"  said  Alice. 

"Well,  yes;  and  down  on  that  bottom  we've 
found  as  good  clay  for  pottery,  sewer-pipes,  and 
paving-brick  as  exists  anywhere.  Back  there 


We  Reach  the  Atoll.  49 

you  saw  that  bluff  along  the  river — looks  as  if  it's 
sliding  down  into  :he  water — remember  it?  Well, 
there's  probably  the  only  place  in  the  world  where 
there's  just  the  juxtaposition  of  sand  and  clay  and 
chalk  to  make  Portland  cement.  Supply  absolutely 
unlimited!  Why,  there  ought  to  be  a  thousand 
men  employed  right  now  in  those  cement  works. 
Oh,  I  tell  you,  things '11  hum  here  when  we  get  these 
schemes  working!" 

We  laughed  at  him :  his  visualization  of  the  cement 
works  was  so  complete. 

"I  suppose  you  know  where  all  the  capital  is 
coming  from,"  said  I,  "to  do  all  these  things?  For 
my  part,  I  see  no  way  of  getting  it  except  our  old 
plan  of  buccaneering." 

"Exactly  my  idea!"  said  he.  "Didn't  I  write 
you  that  I'd  enroll  you  as  a  member  of  the  band? 
Has  Al  ever  told  you,  Mrs.  Barslow,  of  our  old  times, 
when  we,  as  individuals,  were  passing  through  our 
sixteenth-century  stage?" 

"Often,"  Alice  replied.  "He  looks  back  upon  his 
pirate  days  as  a  time  of  Arcadian  simplicity,  'Un 
touched  by  sorrow,  and  unsoiled  by  sin.'" 

"I  can  easily  understand,"  said  Jim  reflectively, 
"how  piracy  might  appear  in  that  roseate  light 
after  a  few  years  of  practical  politics.  Now  from 
the  moral  heights  of  a  life-insurance  man's  point  of 
view  it's  different." 

So  we  rode  on  chatting  and  chaffing,  now  of  the  old 
time,  now  of  the  new ;  and  all  the  time  I  felt  more  and 
more  impressed  by  the  dissolving  views  which  Jim 
gave  us  of  different  parts  of  his  program  for  making 


50  We  Reach  the  Atoll. 

Lattimore  the  metropolis  of  "the  world's  granary," 
as  he  called  the  surrounding  country.  As  we  topped 
a  low  hill  on  our  way  back,  he  pulled  up,  to  give  us  a 
general  view  of  the  town  and  suburbs,  and  of  the  great 
expanse  of  farming  country  beyond.  Between  us 
and  Lattimore  was  a  mile  stretch  of  gently  descending 
road,  with  grain-fields  and  farm-houses,  on  each  side. 

"By  the  way,"  said  he,  "do-  you  see  that  white 
house  and  red  barn  in  the  maple  grove  off  to  the 
right?  Well,  you  remember  Bill  Trescott?" 

Neither  of  us  could  call  such  a  person  to  mind. 

"Well,  it's  all  right,  I  suppose,"  he  went  on  in  a 
tone  implying  injury  forgiven,  "but  you  mustn't  let 
Bill  know  you've  forgotten  him.  The  Trescotts 
used  to  live  over  by  the  Whitney  schoolhouse  in 
Greenwood  Township, — right  on  the  Pleasant  Valley 
line,  you  know.  He  remembers  you  folks,  Al.  I'll 
drive  over  that  way." 

There  were  beds  of  petunias  and  four-o'clocks  to 
be  seen  dimly  glimmering  in  the  dusk,  as  we  drove 
through  the  broad  gate.  Men  and  women  were 
gathered  in  a  group  about  the  base  of  the  windmill, 
as  Jim's  loud  "whoa"  announced  our  arrival.  The 
women  melted  away  in  the  direction  of  the  house. 
The  men  stood  at  gaze. 

"Hello,  Bill!"  shouted  Jim.     "Come  out  here!" 

"Oh,  it's  you,  is  it,  Mr.  Elkins,"  said  a  deep  voice. 
"I  didn't  know  yeh." 

"Thought  it  was  the  sheriff  with  a  summons,  eh? 
Well,  I  guess  hardly!"  said  Jim.  "Mr.  Trescott,  I 
want  you  to  shake  hands  with  our  old  friend  Mr. 
Barslow," 


We  Reach  the  Atoll.  51 

A  heavy  figure  detached  itself  from  the  group, 
and,  as  it  approached,  developed  indistinctly  the 
features  of  a  brawny  farmer,  with  a  short,  heavy, 
dark  beard. 

"Wai,  I  declare,  I'm  glad  to  see  yeh!"  said  he,  as 
he  grasped  my  hand.  "I'd  a'most  forgot  yeh,  till 
Mr.  Elkins  told  me  you  remembered  my  whalin'  them 
Dutch  boys  at  a  scale  onct." 

I  had  had  no  recollection  of  him;  yet  form  and 
voice  seemed  vaguely  familiar.  I  assured  him  that 
my  memory  for  names  and  faces  was  excellent. 
After  being  duly  presented  to  Mrs.  Barslow,  he  urged 
us  to  alight  and  come  in.  We  offered  as  an  excuse 
the  lateness  of  the  hour. 

"Why,  you  hain't  seen  my  family  yet,  Mr.  Barslow," 
said  he.  "They'll  be  disappointed  if  yeh  don't  come 
in." 

I  suggested  that  we  were  staying  for  a  few  days 
at  the  Centropolis;  and  Alice  added  that  we. should 
be  glad  to  see  himself  and  Mrs.  Trescott  there  at  any 
time  during  our  stay.  Elkins  promised  that  we 
should  all  drive  out  again. 

"Wai,  now,  you  must,"  said  Mr.  Trescott.  "We 
must  talk  overol'  times  and— 

"Fight  over  old  battles,"  replied  Jim.  "All  the 
battles  were  yours,  though,  eh,  Bill?" 

"Huh,  huh!"  chuckled  Bill;  "fightin's  no  credit 
to  any  man ;  but  I  'spose  I  fit  my  sheer  when  I  was 
a  boy — when  I  was  a  boy,  y'  know,  Mrs.  Barslow, 
and  had  more  sand  than  sense.  Here,  Josie,  here's 
Mr.  Elkins  and  some  old  friends  of  mine.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Barslow,  my  daughter." 


52  We  Reach  the  Atoll. 

She  was  a  little  slim  slip  of  a  thing,  in  white,  and 
emerged  from  the  shrubbery  at  Mr.  Trescott's  call. 
She  bowed  to  us,  and  said  she  was  sorry  that  we 
could  not  stop.  Her  voice  was  sweet,  and  there  was 
something  unexpectedly  cool  and  self-possessed  in 
her  intonation.  It  was  not  in  the  least  the  speech 
of  the  ordinary  neat-handed  Phyllis  or  Neaera;  nor 
was  her  attitude  at  all  countrified  as  she  stood  with 
her  hand  on  her  father's  arm.  The  increasing  dark 
ness  kept  us  from  seeing  her  features. 

"Josie's  my  right-hand  man,"  said  her  father. 
"Half  the  business  of  the  farm  stops  when  Josie 
goes  away." 

My  wife  expressed  her  admiration  for  Lattimore  and 
its  environs,  and  especially  for  so  much  of  the  Tres- 
cott  farm  as  could  be  seen  in  the  deepening  gloaming. 
The  flowers,  she  said,  took  her  back  to  her  childhood's 
home. 

"Let  me  give  you  these,"  said  the  girl,  handing 
Alice  a  great  bunch  of  blossoms  which  she  had  been 
cutting  when  her  father  called,  and  had  held  in  her 
hands  as  we  talked.  My  wife  thanked  her,  and 
buried  her  face  in  them,  as  we  bade  the  Trescotts 
good-night  and  drove  home. 

"That  girl,"  said  Jim,  as  we  spun  along  the  road 
in  the  light  of  the  rising  moon,  "is  a  crackcrjack. 
Bill  thinks  the  world  of  her,  and  she  certainly 
gives  him  a  mother's  care ! ' ' 

"She  seems  nice,"  said  Alice,  "and  so  refined,  ap 
parently." 

"Been  well  educated,"  said  Jim,  "and  got  a 
head,  besides.  You'll  like  her;  she  knows  Europe 


We  Reach  the  Atoll.  53 

better  than  some  folks  know  their  own  front 
yard." 

"  I  was  surprised  at  the  vividness  of  my  memory  of 
Bill's  youthful  combats,"  said  I. 

Jim's  laugh  rang  out  heartily  through  the  Brushy 
Creek  gorge. 

"Well,  I  supposed  you  remembered  those  things, 
of  course,"  said  he,  "and  so  I  insinuated  some  impres 
sion  of  the  delight  with  which  you  dwell  upon  the 
stories  of  his  prowess.  It  made  him  feel  good  .  .  . 
I'm  spoiling  Bill,  I  guess,  with  these  tales.  He'll 
claim  to  have  a  private  graveyard  next.  As  harmless 
a  fellow  as  you  ever  saw,  and  the  best  cattle-feeder 
hereabouts.  Got  a  good  farm  out  there,  Bill  has;  we 
may  need  it  for  stock  yards  or  something,  later  on." 

"Why  not  hire  a  corps  of  landscape-gardeners, 
and  make  a  park  of  it?"  I  inquired  sarcastically. 
"We'll  certainly  need  breathing-spaces  for  the 
populace." 

"Good  idea!"  he  returned  gravely.  And  as  he 
halted  the  equipage  at  the  hotel,  he  repeated  medi 
tatively:  "A  mighty  good  idea,  Al;  we  must  figure 
on  that  a  little." 

We  were  tired  to  silence  when  we  reached  our 
rooms;  so  much  so  that  nothing  seemed  to  make  a 
denned  and  sharp  impression  upon  my  mind.  I 
kept  thinking  all  the  time  that  I  must  have  been 
mistaken  in  my  first  thought  that  I  had  never  known 
the  Trescotts. 

"Their  voices  seem  familiar  to  me,"  said  I,  "and 
yet  I  can't  associate  them  with  the  old  home  at  all. 
It's  very  odd!" 


54  We  Reach  the  Atoll. 

As  Alice  stood  before  the  mirror  shaking  down 
and  brushing  her  hair,  she  said:  "Do  you  suppose 
he  thought  you  in  earnest  about  that  absurd  park  ? ' ' 

"No,"  I  answered,  "he  understood  me  well 
enough;  but  what  puzzles  me  is  the  question,  was 
he  in  earnest?" 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  woke  with  a  perfectly 
clear  idea  as  to  the  identity  of  the  Trescotts! 
Prescott ,  Trescott !  Josie ,  Josephine  the  ' '  Empress  ' ' ! 
And  then  the  voice  and  figure! 

"Why  are  you  sitting  up  in  bed?"  inquired  Alice. 

"I  have  made  a  discovery,"  said  I.  "That  man 
at  the  Stock  Yards  meant  Trescott,  not  Prescott." 

"I  don't  understand,"  said  she  sleepily. 

"In  a  word,"  said  I,  "the  girl  who  gave  you  the 
flowers  is  the  Empress!" 

"Albert  Barslow!"  said  Alice.  "Why — 

My  wife  was  silent  for  a  long  time. 

"I  knew  we'd  meet  her,"  she  said  at  last.  "It  is 
fate." 


CHAPTER  VI. 
I  am  f  nDucted  into  tbc  Cave,  anO  Bnlist. 

"HERE'S  the  cave,"  said  Jim,  at  the  door  of  his 
office,  next  morning.  "As  prospective  joint-pro 
prietor  and  co-malefactor,  I  bid  you  welcome." 

The  smiles  with  which  the  employees  resumed 
their  work  indicated  that  the  extraordinary  character 
of  this  welcome  was  not  lost  upon  them.  The  office 
was  on  the  ground-floor  of  one  of  the  more  preten 
tious  buildings  of  Lattimore's  main  street.  The 
post-office  was  on  one  side  of  it,  and  the  First  Na 
tional  Bank  on  the  other.  Over  it  were  the  offices 
of  lawyers  and  physicians.  It  was  quite  expen 
sively  fitted  up;  and  the  plate-glass  front  glittered 
with  gold-and-black  sign-lettering.  The  chairs  and 
sofas  were  upholstered  in  black  leather.  On  the 
walls  hung  several  decorative  advertisements  of 
fire-insurance  companies,  and  maps  of  the  town, 
county,  and  state.  Rolls  of  tracing-paper  and  blue 
prints  lay  on  the  flat-topped  tables,  reminding  one 
of  the  office  of  an  architect  or  civil  engineer.  A 
thin  young  man  worked  at  books,  standing  at  a  high 
desk;  and  a  plump  young  woman  busily  clicked  off 
typewritten  matter  with  an  up-to-date  machine. 

55 


56      Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

"You'll  find  some  books  and  papers  on  the  table  in 
the  next  room,"  said  Jim,  as  I  finished  my  first  look 
about.  "I'll  ask  you  to  amuse  yourself  with  'em 
for  a  little  while,  until  I  can  dispose  of  my  morning's 
mail;  after  which  we'll  resume  our  hunt  for  resources. 
We  haven't  any  morning  paper  yet,  and  the  evening 
Herald  is  shipped  in  by  freight  and  edited  with  a 
saw.  But  it's  the  best  we've  got — yet." 

He  read  his  letters,  ran  his  eyes  over  his  news 
papers  and  a  magazine  or  two,  and  dictated  some 
correspondence,  interrupted  occasionally  by  callers, 
some  of  whom  he  brought  into  the  room  where  I  was 
whiling  away  the  time,  examining  maps,  and  looking 
over  out-of-date  copies  of  the  local  papers.  One  of 
these  callers  was  Mr.  Hinckley,  the  cashier  of  the 
bank,  who  came  to  see  about  some  insurance  matters. 
He  was  spare,  aquiline,  and  white-mustached ;  and 
very  courteously  wished  Lattimore  the  good  fortune 
of  securing  so  valuable  an  acquisition  as  ourselves. 
It  would  place  Lattimore  under  additional  obliga 
tions  to  Mr.  Elkins,  who  was  proving  himself  such  an 
effective  worker  in  all  public  matters. 

"Mr.  Elkins,"  said  he,  "  has  to  a  wonderful  degree 
identified  himself  with  the  material  progress  of  the 
city.  He  is  constantly  bringing  here  enterprising 
and  energetic  business  men;  and  we  could  better 
afford  to  lose  many  an  older  citizen." 

I  asked  Mr.  Hinckley  as  to  the  length  of  his  own 
residence  in  Lattimore. 

"I  helped  to  plat  the  town,  sir,"  said  he.  "I 
carried  the  chain  when  these  streets  were  surveyed,— 
a  boy  just  out  of  Bowdoin  College.  That  was  in  '55. 


Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist.      57 

I  staged  it  for  four  hundred  miles  to  get  here.  Aleck 
Macdonald  and  I  came  together,  and  we've  both  staid 
from  that  day.  The  Indians  were  camped  at  the 
mouth  of  Brushy  Creek;  and  except  for  old  Pierre 
Lacroix,  a  squaw-man,  we  were  for  a  month  the  only 
white  men  in  these  parts.  Then  General  Lattimore 
came  with  a  party  of  surveyors,  and  by  the  fall 
there  was  quite  a  village  here." 

Jim  came  in  with  another  gentleman,  whom  he 
introduced  as  Captain  Tolliver.  The  Captain  shook 
my  hand  with  profuse  politeness. 

"I  am  delighted  to  see  you,  suh,"  said  he.  "Any 
friend  of  Mr.  Elkins  I  shall  be  proud  to  know.  I 
heah  that  Mrs.  Barslow  is  with  you.  I  trust,  suh, 
that  she  is  well?" 

I  informed  him  that  my  wife  was  in  excellent 
health,  being  completely  recovered  from  the  fatigue 
of  her  journey. 

"Ah!  this  aiah,  this  aiah,  Mr.  Barslow!  It  is  like 
wine  in  its  invigorating  qualities,  like  wine,  suh. 
Look  at  Mr.  Hinckley,  hyah,  doing  the  work  of  two 
men  fo'  a  lifetime;  and  younge'  now  than  any  of  us. 
Come,  suh,  and  make  yo'  home  with  us.  You  nevah 
can  regret  it.  Delighted  to  have  you  call  at  my 
office,  suh.  I  am  proud  to  have  met  you,  and  hope 
to  become  better  acquainted  with  you.  I  hope  Mrs. 
Tulliver  and  Mrs.  Barslow  may  soon  meet.  Good- 
morning,  gentlemen."  And  he  hurried  out,  only  to 
reappear  as  soon  as  Mr.  Hinckley  was  gone. 

"By  the  way,  Mr.  Barslow,"  he  whispered,  "should 
you  come  to  Lattimore,  as  I  have  no  doubt  you  will, 
I  have  some  of  the  choicest  residence  property  in 


58      Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

the  city,  which  I  shall  be  mo'  than  glad  to  show  you. 
Title  perfect,  no  commissions  to  pay,  city  water,  gas, 
and  electric  light  in  prospect.  Cain't  yo'  come  and 
look  it  ovah  now,  suh?" 

"Who  is  this  Captain  Tolliver,  Jim,"  I  asked  as  we 
went  out  of  the  office  together,  "and  what  is  he? " 

"In  other  words,  'Who  and  what  art  thou,  execra 
ble  shape?'  Well,  now,  don't  ask  me.  I've  known 
him  for  years;  in  fact,  he  suggested  to  me  the 
possibilities  of  this  burg.  In  a  way,  the  city  is  in 
debted  to  him  for  my  presence  here.  But  don't 
ask  me  about  him — study  him.  And  don't  buy 
lots  from  him.  The  Captain  has  his  failings,  but 
he  has  also  his  strong  points  and  his  uses;  and  I'll 
be  mistaken  if  he  isn't  cast  for  a  fairly  prominent  part 
in  the  drama  we're  about  to  put  on  here.  But  don't 
spoil  your  enjoyment  by  having  him  described  to 
you.  Let  him  dawn  on  you  by  degrees." 

That  day  I  met  most  of  the  prominent  men  of  the 
town.  Jim  took  me  into  the  banks,  the  shops,  and 
the  offices  of  the  leading  professional  gentlemen.  He 
informed  them  that  I  was  considering  the  matter  of 
coming  to  live  among  them;  and  I  found  them  very 
friendly,  and  much  interested  in  our  proposed 
change  of  residence.  They  all  treated  Jim  with 
respect,  and  his  manner  toward  them  had  a  dignity 
which  I  had  not  looked  for.  Evidently  he  was  mak 
ing  himself  felt  in  the  community. 

When  we  returned  to  the  Centropolis  at  noon, 
we  found  Mrs.  Trescott  and  her  daughter  chatting 
with  my  wife.  The  elder  woman  was  ill-groomed, 
as  are  all  women  of  her  class  in  comparison  with  their 


Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist.      59 

town  sisters,  and  angular.  I  knew  the  type  so  well 
that  I  could  read  the  traces  of  farm  cares  in  her  face 
and  form.  The  serving  of  gangs  of  harvesters  and 
threshers,  the  ever-recurring  problems  of  butter, 
eggs,  and  berries,  the  unflagging  fight,  without  much 
domestic  help,  for  neatness  and  order  about  the  house, 
had  impressed  their  stamp  upon  Mrs.  Trescott.  But 
she  was  chatting  vivaciously,  and  assuring  Mrs. 
Barslow  that  such  a  thing  as  staying  longer  in 
town  that  morning  was  impossible. 

"I  can  feel  in  my  bones,"  said  she,  "that  there's 
something  wrong  at  the  farm." 

"You  always  have  that  feeling,"  said  her  daugh 
ter,  "as  soon  as  you  pass  outside  the  gate." 

"And  I'm  usually  right  about  it,"  said  Mrs.  Tres 
cott.  "It  isn't  any  use.  My  system  has  got  into 
that  condition  in  which  I'm  in  misery  if  I'm  off  that 
farm.  Josie  drags  me  away  from  it  sometimes;  and 
I  do  enjoy  meeting  people!  But  I  like  to  meet  'em 
out  there  the  best;  and  I  want  to  urge  you  to  come 
often,  Mrs.  Barslow,  while  you're  here.  And  in  case 
you  move  here,  I  hope  you'll  like  us  and  the  farm 
well  enough  so  that  we'll  see  a  good  deal  of  you." 

I  was  presented  to  Mrs.  Trescott,  and  reintroduced 
to  the  young  lady,  with  whom  Alice  seemed  already 
on  friendly  terms.  I  was  surprised  at  this,  for  she 
was  not  prone  to  sudden  friendships.  There  was 
something  so  attractive  in  the  girl,  however,  that  it 
went  far  to  explain  the  phenomenon.  For  one 
thing,  there  was  in  her  manner  that  same  steadiness 
and  calm  which  I  had  noticed  in  her  voice  in  the 
dusk  last  night.  It  gave  one  the  impression  that 


60      Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

she  could  not  be  surprised  or  startled,  that  she  had 
seen  or  thought  out  all  possible  combinations  of 
events,  and  knew  of  their  sequences,  or  adjusted 
herself  to  things  by  some  all-embracing  rule,  by 
which  she  attained  that  repose  of  hers.  The  sur 
prising  thing  about  it,  to  my  mind,  was  to  find  this 
exterior  in  Bill  Trescott's  daughter.  I  had  seen 
the  same  thing  once  or  twice  in  people  to  whom  I 
thought  it  had  come  as  the  fruit  of  wide  experience 
in  the  world. 

While  Miss  Trescott  was  slim,  and  rather  below 
the  medium  in  height,  she  was  not  at  all  thin;  and 
had  the  great  mass  of  ruddy  dark  hair  and  fine 
brown'  eyes  which  I  remembered  so  well,  and  a  face 
which  would  have  been  pale  had  it  not  been  for  the 
tan — the  only  thing  about  her  which  suggested  those 
occupations  by  which  she  became  her  father's 
"right-hand  man."  There  was  intelligence  in  her 
face,  and  a  grave  smile  in  her  eyes,  which  rarely  ex 
tended  to  her  handsome  mouth.  If  mature  in  face, 
form,  and  manner,  she  was  young  in  years — some 
years  younger  than  Alice.  I  hoped  that  she  might 
stay  to  dinner;  but  she  went  away  with  her  mother. 
In  her  absence,  I  devoted  some  time  to  praising  her. 
Jim  failed  to  join  in  my  paeans  further  than  to  give 
a  general  assent;  but  he  grew  unaccountably  mirth 
ful,  as  if  something  good  had  happened  to  him  of 
which  he  had  not  yet  told  us. 

"I  have  invited  a  few  people  to  my  parlors  this 
evening,"  said  he,  "and,  of  course,  you  will  be  the 
guests  of  honor." 

My  wife  demurred.     She  had  nothing  to  wear,  and 


Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist.      61 

even  if  she  had,  I  was  without  evening  dress.  The 
thing  seemed  out  of  the  question. 

"Oh,  we  can't  let  that  stand  in  the  way,"  said  he. 
"So  far  as  your  own  toilet  is  concerned,  I  have  noth 
ing  to  say  except  that  you  are  known  to  be  making 
a  hurried  visit,  and  I  have  an  abiding  faith,  based 
on  your  manner  of  stating  your  trouble,  that  it  can 
be  remedied.  I  saw  your  eye  take  on  a  far-away 
look  as  you  planned  your  costume,  even  while  you 
were  declaring  that  you  couldn't  do  it.  Didn't  I, 
now  ? ' ' 

"You  certainly  did  not,"  said  Alice;  and  then  I 
noticed  the  absorbed  look  myself.  "But  even  if  I 
can  manage  it,  how  about  Albert?" 

"I'll  tell  you  about  Albert.  I'll  bet  two  to  one 
there  won't  be  a  suit  of  evening  clothes  worn.  The 
dress  suit  may  come  in  here  with  street  cars  and 
passenger  elevators,  but  it  lacks  a  good  deal  of  being 
here  yet,  except  in  the  most  sporadic  and  infrequent 
way.  And  this  thing  is  to  be  so  absolutely  informal 
that  it  would  make  the  natives  stare.  You  wouldn't 
wear  it  if  you  had  it,  Al." 

"Who  will  come?"  said  Mrs.  Barslow. 

"Oh,  a  couple  of  dozen  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
business  men  and  doctors  and  lawyers  and  their 
women-folks.  They'll  stray  in  from  eight  to  ten 
and  find  something  to  eat  on  the  sideboard.  They'll 
have  the  happiness  of  meeting  you,  and  you  can  see 
what  the  people  you  are  thinking  of  living  among 
and  doing  business  with  are  like.  It's  a  necessary 
part  of  your  visit;  and  you  can't  get  out  of  it  now, 
for  I've  taken  the  liberty  of  making  all  the  arrange- 


62      Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

ments.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  you  don't  want 
to  do  so,  do  you,  now?" 

Thus  appealed  to,  Alice  consented.  Nothing  was 
said  to  me  about  it,  my  willingness  being  presumed. 

The  guests  that  evening  were  almost  exclusively 
men  whom  I  had  met  during  the  day,  and  members 
of  their  families.  In  the  absence  of  any  more  engag 
ing  topic,  we  discussed  Lattimore  as  our  possible 
future  home. 

"I  have  always  felt,"  said  Mr.  Hinckley,  who  was 
one  of  the  guests,  "that  this  is  the  natural  site  of  a 
great  city.  These  valleys,  centering  here  like  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel,  are  ready-made  railway-routes. 
In  the  East  there  is  a  city  of  from  fifty  thousand  to 
three  times  that,  every  hundred  miles  or  so.  Why 
shouldn't  it  be  so  here?" 

"Suh,"  said  Captain  Tolliver,  "the  thing  is  inev 
itable.  Somewhah  in  this  region  will  grow  up  a 
metropolis.  Shall  it  be  hyah,  o'  at  Fairchild,  o' 
Angus  Falls?  If  the  people  of  Lattimore  sit  supinely, 
suh,  and  let  these  country  villages  steal  from  huh 
the  queenship  which  God  o'dained  fo'  huh  when  He 
placed  huh  in  this  commandin'  site,  then,  suh,  they 
ah  too  base  to  be  wo 'thy  of  the  suh  vices  of  gentle 
men." 

"I've  always  been  taught,"  said  Mrs.  Trescott, 
"that  the  credit  of  placing  her  in  this  site  belonged 
to  either  Mr.  Hinckley  or  General  Lattimore." 

"Really,"  said  Miss  Addison  to  me,  "I  don't  see 
how  they  can  laugh  at  such  irreverence!" 

"I  think,"  said  Miss  Hinckley  in  my  other  ear,  "that 
Mr.  Elkins  expressed  the  whole  truth  in  the  matter 


Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist.     63 

of  the  rivalry  of  these  three  towns,  when  he  said  that 
when  two  ride  on  a  horse,  one  must  ride  behind. 
Aren't  his  quotations  so — so — illuminating?" 

I  looked  about  at  the  company.  There  were  Mr. 
Hinckley,  Mrs.  Hinckley,  their  daughter,  whom  I 
recognized  as  the  splendid  blonde  whose  pacers  had 
passed  us  when  we  were  out  driving,  Mrs.  Trescott 
and  her  daughter,  and  Captain  and  Mrs.  Tolliver. 
Those  present  were  plainly  of  several  different  sets 
and  cliques.  Mrs.  Hinckley  hoped  that  my  wife 
would  join  the  Equal  Rights  Club,  and  labor  for  the 
enfranchisement  of  women.  She  referred,  too,  to 
the  eloquence  and  piety  of  her  pastor,  the  Presby 
terian  minister,  while  Mrs.  Tolliver  quoted  Emerson, 
and  invited  Alice  to  join,  as  soon  as  we  removed,  the 
Monday  Club  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  devoted  to  the 
study  of  his  works.  Mr.  Macdonald,  red-whiskered, 
weather-beaten,  and  gigantic,  fidgeted  about  the 
punch-bowl  a  good  deal;  and  replying  to  some 
chance  remark  made  by  Alice,  ventured  the  opinion 
that  the  grass  was  gettin'  mighty  short  on  the  ranges. 
Miss  Addison,  who  came  with  her  cousins  the  Latti- 
mores,  looked  with  disapproval  upon  the  punch,  and 
disclosed  her  devotion  to  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  and  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Church.  The 
Lattimores  were  Will  Lattimore  and  his  wife.  I 
learned  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  General,  and  Jim's 
lawyer;  and  that  they  went  rarely  into  society, 
being  very  exclusive.  This  was  communicated  to 
me  by  Mrs.  Ballard,  who  brought  Miss  Ballard  with 
her.  She  asked  in  tones  of  the  intensest  interest  if 
we  played  whist;  while  Miss  Ballard  suggested  that 


64     Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

about  the  only  way  we  could  find  to  enjoy  ourselves 
in  such  a  little  place  would  be  to  identify  ourselves 
with  the  dancing-party  and  card-club  set.  I  began 
to  suspect  that  life  in  Lattimore  would  not  be  with 
out  its  complexities. 

Mr.  Trescott  came  in  for  a  moment  only,  for  his  wife 
and  daughter.  Miss  Trescott  was  not  to  be  found  at 
first,  but  was  discovered  in  the  bay-window  with  Jim 
and  Miss  Hinckley,  looking  over  some  engravings. 
Mr.  Elkins  took  her  down  to  her  carriage,  and  I 
thought  him  a  long  time  gone,  for  the  host.  As 
soon  as  he  returned,  however,  the  conversation 
again  turned  to  the  dominant  thought  of  the  gather 
ing,  municipal  expansion.  And  I  noted  that  the 
points  made  were  Jim's.  He  had  already  imbued 
the  town  with  his  thoughts,  and  filled  the  mouths  of 
its  citizens  with  his  arguments. 

After  they  left,  we  sat  with  Jim  and  talked. 

"Well,  how  do  you  like  'em?"  said  he. 

"Why,"  said  Alice,  "they're  very  cordial." 

"Heterogeneous,  eh?"  he  queried. 

"Yes,"  said  she,  "but  very  cordial.  I  am  sur 
prised  to  feel  how  little  I  dislike  them." 

As  for  me,  I  began  to  look  upon  Lattimore  with 
more  favor.  I  began  to  catch  Jim's  enthusiasm  and 
share  his  confidence.  As  we  smoked  together  in  his 
rooms  that  evening,  he  made  me  the  definite  proposal 
that  I  go  into  partnership  with  him.  We  talked 
about  the  business,  and  discussed  its  possibilities. 

"I  don't  ask  you  to  believe  all  my  prophecies," 
said  he;  "but  isn't  the  situation  fairly  good,  just  as 
it  is?" 


Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist.      65 

"I  think  well  of  it,"  I  answered,  "and  it's  mighty 
kind  of  you  to  ask  me  to  come.  I'll  go  as  far  as  to 
say  that  if  it  depends  solely  on  me,  we  shall  come. 
As  for  these  prophecies  of  yours,  I  am  in  candor 
bound  to  say  that  I  half  believe  them." 

"Now  you  are  shouting,"  said  he.  "Never  better 
prophecies  anywhere.  But  consider  the  matter 
aside  from  them.  Then  all  we  clean  up  in  the  proph 
ecy  department  will  be  velvet,  absolute  velvet!" 

"  I  can  add  something  to  the  output  of  the  proph 
ecy  department,"  said  Alice,  when  I  repeated  the 
phrase;  "and  that  is  that  there  will  be  some  affairs 
of  the  heart  mingled  with  the  real  estate  and 
insurance  before  long.  I  can  see  them  in  embryo 
now." 

"If  it's  Jim  and  Miss  Trescott  you  mean,  I  wish 
the  affair  well,"  said  I.  "I'm  quite  charmed  with 
her. " 

"Well,"  said  Alice,  "from  the  standpoint  of  most 
men,  Miss  Hinckley  isn't  to  be  left  out  of  the  reckon 
ing  in  such  matters.  What  a  face  and  figure  she  has! 
Miss  Addison  is  too  prudish  and  churchified;  but  I 
like  Miss  Hinckley." 

"Yes,"  said  I;  "but  Miss  Trescott  seems,  some 
how,  to  have  been  known  to  one,  in  some  tender  and 
touching  relation.  There's  that  about  her  which 
appeals  to  one,  like  some  embodiment  of  the  abstract 
idea  of  woman.  That's  why  one  feels  as  if  he  had 
risked  his  life  for  her,  and  protected  her,  and  seen 
her  suffer  wrong,  and  all  that — 

"That's  only  because  of  that  affair  you  told  me 
of,"  said  my  wife.  "Since  I've  seen  her,  I've  made 


66      Inducted  into  the  Cave,  I  Enlist. 

up  my  mind  that  you  misconstrued  the  matter  utter 
ly.  There  was  really  nothing  to  it." 

In  a  week  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Elkins,  accepting  his 
proposal,  and  promising  to  close  up  my  affairs, 
remove  to  Lattimore,  and  join  with  him. 

"I  do  not  feel  myself  equal  to  playing  the  part  of 
either  Romulus  or  Remus  in  founding  your  new 
Rome,"  I  wrote;  "but  I  think  as  a  writer  of  fire- 
insurance  policies,  and  keeping  the  office  work  up,  I 
may  prove  myself  not  entirely  a  deadhead.  My 
wife  asks  how  the  breathing-spaces  for  the  populace 
are  coming  on?" 

And  the  die  was  cast! 


CHAPTER  VII. 
"Me  mafce  our  Xan&in0. 

HAD  I  known  how  cordially  our  neighbors  would 
greet  our  return,  or  how  many  of  them  would  view 
our  departure  with  apparently  sincere  regret,  I  might 
have  been  slower  in  giving  Jim  my  promise.  I  pro 
ceeded,  however,  to  carry  it  out ;  but  it  was  nearly  six 
months  before  I  could  pull  myself  and  my  little  for 
tune  out  of  the  place  into  which  we  had  grown. 

Mr.  Elkins  kept  me  well  informed  regarding  Latti- 
more  affairs;  and  the  Herald  followed  me  home. 
Jim's  letters  were  long  typewritten  communica 
tions,  dictated  at  speed,  and  mailed,  sometimes 
one  a  day,  at  other  times  at  intervals  of  weeks. 

"This  is  a  sure-enough  'winter  of  our  discontent,"' 
one  of  these  letters  runs,  "but  the  scope  of  our  opera 
tions  will  widen  as  the  frost  comes  out  of  the  ground. 
We're  now  confined  to  the  psychical  field.  Sub 
jectively  speaking,  though,  the  plot  thickens.  Cap 
tain  Tolliver  is  in  the  secondary  stages  of  real-estate 
dementia,  and  spreads  the  contagion  daily.  There's 
no  quarantine  regulation  to  cover  the  case,  and 
Lattimore  seems  doomed  to  the  acme  of  prosperity. 
This  is  the  age  of  great  cities,  saith  the  Captain, 

67 


68  We  make  our  Landing. 

and  that  Lattimore  is  not  already  a  town  of  150,000 
people  is  one  of  the  strangest,  one  of  the  most  inex 
plicable  things  in  the  world,  in  view  of  the  distance 
we  are  lag  of  the  country  about  us,  so  far  as  develop 
ment  is  concerned.  And  as  our  beginning  has  been 
tardy,  so  will  our  progress  be  rapid,  even  as  waters 
long  dammed  up  rush  out  to  devour  the  plains,  etc., 
etc. 

"In  this  we  are  all  agreed.  We  want  a  good, 
steady,  natural  growth — and  no  boom. 

"When  a  boom  recognizes  itself  as  such,  it's  all 
over,  and  the  stuff  off.  The  time  for  letting  go  of  a 
great  wheel  is  when  it  starts  down  hill.  But  our 
wheels  are  all  going  up — even  if  they  are  all  in  our 
heads,  as  yet. 

"You  will  remember  the  railway  connection  of 
which  I  spoke  to  you?  Well,  that  thing  has  assumed, 
all  of  a  sudden,  a  concreteness  as  welcome  as  it  is 
unexpected.  Ballard  showed  me  a  telegram  yes 
terday  from  lower  Broadway  (the  heart  of  Darkest 
N.  Y.)  which  tends  to  prove  that  people  there  are 
ready  to  finance  the  deal.  It  would  have  amused 
you  to  see  the  horizontality  of  the  coat-tails  of  the 
management  of  the  Lattimore  &  Great  Western, 
as  they  flaxed  round  getting  up  a  directors'  meeting, 
so  as  to  have  a  real,  live  directorate  of  this  great 
transcontinental  line  for  the  wolves  of  Wall  Street 
to  do  business  with!  Things  like  this  are  what  you 
miss  by  hibernating  there,  instead  of  dropping 
everything  and  applying  here  for  your  pro  rata 
share  of  the  gayety  of  nations  and  the  concomitant 
scads. 


We  make  our  Landing.  69 

"I  was  elected  president  of  the  road,  and  as  soon 
as  we  get  a  little  track,  and  an  engine,  I  expect  to 
obtain  an  exchange  of  passes  with  all  my  fellow 
monopolists  in  North  America.  I  at  once  fired 
back  an  answer  to  Ballard's  telegram,  which  must 
have  produced  an  impression  upon  the  Gould  and 
Vanderbilt  interests — if  they  got  wind  of  it.  If  the 
L.  &  G.  W.  should  pass  the  paper  stage  next  summer, 
it  will  do  a  whole  lot  towards  carrying  this  burg  be 
yond  the  hypnotic  period  of  development. 

"The  Angus  Falls  branch  is  going  to  build  in 
next  summer,  I  am  confident,  and  that  means  another 
division  headquarters  and,  probably,  machine-shops. 
I'm  working  with  some  of  the  trilobites  here  to  form  a 
pool,  and  offer  the  company  grounds  for  additional 
yards  and  a  roundhouse  and  shops.  Captain 
Tolliver  interviewed  General  Lattimore  about  it.  and 
got  turned  down. 

"'He  told  me,  suh,'  reported  the  Captain,  in  a  fine 
white  passion,  'that  if  any  railway  system  desiahs  to 
come  to  Lattimore,  it  has  his  puhmission!  That 
the  Injuns  didn't  give  him  any  bonus  when  he  came; 
and  that  he  had  to  build  his  own  houses  and  yahds, 
by  gad,  at  his  own  expense,  and  defend  'em,  too; 
and  that  if  any  railroad  was  thinkin'  of  comin'  hyah, 
it  was  doubtless  because  it  was  good  business  fo'  'em 
to  come;  and  that  if  they  wanted  any  of  his  land, 
were  willing  to  pay  him  his  price,  there  wouldn't  be 
any  difficulty  about  theiah  getting  it.  And  that  if 
there  should  arise  any  difference,  which  he  should 
deeply  regret,  but  would  try  to  live  through,  the 
powah  of  eminent  domain  with  which  railways  ah 


70  We  make  our  Landing. 

clothed  will  enable  the  company  to  get  what  land  is 
necessary  by  legal  means. 

' '  I  could  take  these  observations, '  said  the  Cap 
tain,  'as  nothing  except  a  gratuitous  insult  to  one 
who  approached  him,  suh,  in  a  spirit  of  pure  benevo 
lence  and  civic  patriotism.  It  shows  the  kind  of 
tyrants  who  commanded  the  oppressors  of  the 
South,  suh!  Only  his  gray  hairs  protected  him,  suh, 
only  his  gray  hairs ! ' ' 

"It's  a  little  hard  to  separate  the  General  from 
the  Captain,  in  this  report  of  the  committee  on 
railway  extensions,"  said  my  wife. 

"The  only  thing  that's  clear  about  it,"  said  I,  "is 
that  Jim  is  having  a  good  deal  of  fun  with  the  Cap 
tain." 

This  became  clearer  as  the  correspondence  went 
on. 

"Tolliver  thinks,"  said  he,  in  another  letter, 
"  that  the  Angus  Falls  extension  can  be  pulled 
through.  However,  I  recall  that  only  yesterday 
the  Captain,  in  private,  denounced  the  citizens  of 
Lattimore  as  beneath  the  contempt  of  gentlemen 
of  breadth  of  view.  '  I  shall  dispose  of  my  holdin's 
hyah,'  said  he,  with  a  stately  sweep  indicative  of 
their  extent,  'at  any  sacrifice,  and  depaht,  cuhsin'  the 
day  I  devoted  myself  to  the  redemption  of  such 
cattle.' 

"But,  at  that  particular  moment,  he  had  just 
failed  in  an  attempt  to  sell  Bill  Trescott  a  bunch  of 
choice  outlying  gold  bricks,  and  was  somewhat 
heated  with  wine.  This  to  the  haughty  Southron  was 


We  make  our  Landing.  71 

ample  excuse  for  confiding  to  me  the  round,  unvar 
nished  truth  about  us  mudsills. 

"Josie  and  I  often  talk  of  you  and  your  wife.  I 
don't  know  what  I'd  do  out  here  if  it  weren't  for 
Josie.  She  refuses  to  enthuse  over  our  'natural, 
healthy  growth,'  which  we  look  for;  but  I  guess  that's 
because  she  doesn't  care  for  the  things  that  the  rest 
of  us  are  striving  for.  But  she's  the  only  person 
here  with  whom  one  can  really  converse.  You'd 
be  astonished  to  see  how  pretty  she  is  in  her  furs, 
and  set  like  a  jewel  in  my  new  sleigh ;  but  I'm  becom 
ing  keenly  aware  of  the  fact." 

We  were  afterwards  told  that  the  trilobites  had 
shaken  off  their  fossilhood,  and  that  the  Angus 
Falls  extension,  with  the  engine-house  and  machine- 
shops,  had  been  "landed." 

"This,"  he  wrote,  "means  enough  new  families  to 
make  a  noticeable  increase  in  our  population.  Things 
will  be  popping  here  soon.  Come  on  and  help  shake 
the  popper;  hurry  up  with  your  moving,  or  it 
will  all  be  over,  including  the  shouting." 

We  were  not  entirely  dependent  upon  Jim's 
letters  for  Lattimore  news.  Mrs.  Barslow  kept  up 
a  desultory  correspondence  with  Miss  Trescott, 
begun  upon  some  pretext  and  continued  upon  none 
at  all.  In  one  of  these  letters  Josie  (for  so  we 
soon  learned  to  call  her)  wrote: 

"Our  little  town  is  changing  so  that  it  no  longer 
seems  familiar.  Not  that  the  change  is  visible. 
Beyond  an  unusual  number  of  strangers  or  recent 
comers,  there  is  nothing  new  to  strike  the  eye.  But 
the  talk  everywhere  is  of  a  new  railroad  and  other 


72  We  make  our  Landing. 

improvements.  One  needs  only  to  shut  one's  eyes 
and  listen,  to  imagine  that  the  town  is  already  a  real 
city.  Mr.  Elkins  seems  to  be  the  center  of  this  new 
civic  self-esteem.  The  air  is  full  of  it,  and  I  admit 
that  I  am  affected  by  it.  I  have 

"  '  A  feeling,  as  when  eager  crowds  await, 
Before  a  palace  gate, 
Some  wondrous  pageant.' 

"You  are  indebted  to  Captain  Tolliver  for  the 
quotation,  and  to  Mr.  Elkins  for  the  idea.  The 
Captain  induced  me  to  read  the  book  in  which  I 
found  the  lines.  He  stigmatizes  the  preference  given 
to  the  Northern  poets — Longfellow,  for  instance — 
over  Timrod  as  'the  crowning  infamy  of  American 
letters.'  He  has  taken  the  trouble  to  lay  out  a 
course  of  study  for  me,  the  object  of  which  is  to 
place  me  right  in  my  appreciation  of  the  literary  men 
of  the  South.  It  includes  Pollard's  'Lost  Cause' 
and  the  works  of  W.  G.  Simms.  I  have  not  fully 
promised  to  follow  it  to  the  end.  Timrod,  however, 
is  a  treat." 

That  last  quiet  winter  will  always  be  set  apart 
in  my  memory,  as  a  time  like  no  other.  It  was  a 
sitting  down  on  a  milestone  to  rest.  Back  of  us 
lay  the  busy  past — busy  with  trivial  things,  it 
seemed  to  me,  but  full  of  varied  activity  never 
theless.  A  boy  will  desire  mightily  to  finish  a  cob- 
house;  and  when  it  is  done  he  will  smilingly  knock 
it  about  the  barn  floor.  So  I  was  tearing  down  and 
leaving  the  fabric  of  relationship  which  I  had  once 
prized  so  highly. 


We  make  our  Landing.  73 

The  life  upon  which  I  expected  to  enter  promised 
well.  In  fact,  to  a  man  of  medium  ability,  only, 
and  no  training  in  large  affairs,  it  promised  exceed 
ingly  well.  I  knew  that  Jim  was  strong,  and  that  his 
old  regard  for  me  had  taken  new  life  and  a  farm  hold 
upon  him.  But  when,  removed  from  his  immediate 
influence,  I  looked  the  situation  in  the  face,  the 
future  loomed  so  mysteriously  bizarre  that  I  shrank 
from  it.  All  his.  skimble-skamble  talk  about  psy 
chology  and  hypnotism,  and  that  other  rambling 
discourse  of  pirate  caves  and  buccaneering  cruises, 
made  me  feel  sometimes  as  if  I  were  about  to  form  a 
partnership  with  Aladdin,  or  the  King  of  the  Golden 
Mountain.  If  he  had  asked  me,  merely,  to  come  to 
Lattimore  and  go  into  the  real  estate  and  insurance 
business  with  him,  I  am  sure  I  should  have  had  none 
of  this  mental  vertigo.  Yet  what  more  had  he  done? 

As  to  the  boom,  I  had,  as  yet,  not  a  particle  of 
objective  confidence  in  it;  but,  subconsciously,  I 
felt,  as  did  the  town  "doomed  to  prosperity,"  a 
sense  of  impending  events.  In  spite  of  some  pre 
sentiments  and  doubts,  it  was,  on  the  whole,  with 
high  hopes  that  we,  on  an  aguish  spring  day,  reached 
Lattimore  with  our  stuff  (as  the  Scriptures  term  it), 
and  knew  that,  for  weal  or  woe,  it  was  our  home. 

Jim  was  again  at  the  station  to  meet  us,  and 
seemed  delighted  at  our  arrival.  I  thought  I  saw 
some  sort  of  absent-mindedness  or  absorbedness  in 
his  manner,  so  that  he  seemed  hardly  like  himself. 
Josie  was  there  with  him,  and  while  she  and  Alice 
were  greeting  each  other,  I  saw  Jim  scanning  the 
little  crowd  at  the  station  as  if  for  some  other  arrival. 


74  We  make  our  Landing. 

At  last,  his  eye  told  me  that  whatever  it  was  for 
which  he  was  looking,  he  had  found  it;  and  I  fol 
lowed  his  glance.  It  rested  on  the  last  person  to 
alight  from  the  train — a  tall,  sinewy,  soldierly-built 
youngish  man,  who  wore  an  overcoat  of  black, 
falling^away  in  front,  so  as  to  reveal  a  black  frock  coat 
tightly  buttoned  up  and  a  snowy  shirt-front  with  a 
glittering  gem  sparkling  from  the  center  of  it.  On 
his  head  was  a  shining  silk  hat — a  thing  so  rare  in 
that  community  as  to  be  noticeable,  and  to  stamp 
the  wearer  as  an  outsider.  His  beard  was  clipped 
close,  and  at  the  chin  ran  out  into  a  pronounced 
Vandyke  point.  His  mustaches  were  black,  heavy, 
and  waxed.  His  whole  external  appearance  be 
tokened  wealth,  and  he  exuded  mystery.  He  had 
not  taken  two  steps  from  the  car  before  the  people  on 
the  platform  were  standing  on  tiptoe  to  see  him. 

"Bus  to  the  Centropolis ? "  queried  the  driver  of 
the  omnibus. 

The  stranger  looked  at  the  conveyance,  filled  as 
it  was  with  a  load  of  traveling  men  and  casuals; 
and,  frowning  darkly,  turned  to  the  negro  who 
accompanied  him,  saying,  "Haven't  you  any  car 
riage  here,  Pearson?" 

"Yes,  sah,"  responded  the  servant,  pointing  to  a 
closed  vehicle.  "Right  hyah,  sah." 

My  wife  stood  looking,  with  a  little  amused  smile, 
at  the  picturesque  group,  so  out  of  the  ordinary 
at  the  time  and  place.  Miss  Trescott  was  gazing 
intently  at  the  stranger,  and  at  the  moment  when  he 
spoke  she  clutched  my  wife's  arm  so  tightly  as  to 
startle  her.  I  heard  Alice  make  some  inquiry  as  to 


We  make  our  Landing.  75 

the  cause  of  her  agitation,  and  as  I  looked  at  her,  I 
could  see  in  the  one  glance  her  face,  gone  suddenly 
white  as  death,  and  the  dark  visage  of  the  tall  stranger. 
And  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  seen  the  same  thing 
before. 

Then,  the  negro  pointing  the  way  to  the  closed 
carriage,  the  group  separated  to  left  and  right,  the 
stranger  passed  through  to  the  carriage,  and  the 
picture,  and  with  it  my  odd  mental  impression,  dis 
solved.  The  negro  lifted  two  or  three  heavy  bags 
to  the  coachman,  gave  the  transfer  man  some  bag 
gage-checks,  and  the  equipage  moved  away  toward 
the  hotel.  All  this  took  place  in  a  moment,  during 
which  the  usual  transactions  on  the  platform  were 
suspended.  The  conductor  failed  to  give  the  usual 
signal  for  the  departure  of  the  train.  The  engineer 
leaned  from  the  cab  and  gazed. 

Jim's  eye  rested  on  the  stranger  and  his  servant 
for  an  instant  only;  but  during  that. time  he  seemed 
to  take  an  observation,  come  to  a  conclusion,  and 
dismiss  the  whole  matter. 

"Here,  John,"  said  he  to  the  drayman,  "take  these 
trunks  to  the  Centropolis.  We'd  like  'em  this 
week,  too.  None  of  that  old  trick  of  yours  of  dump 
ing  'em  in  the  crick,  you  know!' 

"They'll  be  up  there  in  five  minutes  all  right, 
Mr.  Elkins,"  said  John,  grinning  at  Jim's  allusion  to 
some  accident,  the  knowledge  of  which  appeared  to 
be  confined  to  himself  and  Mr.  Elkins,  and  to  consti 
tute  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  them.  Jim  turned 
to  us  with  redoubled  heartiness,  all  his  absent- 
mindedness  gone. 


j6  We  make  our  Landing. 

"I'll  drive  you  to  the  hotel,"  said  Jim.     "You'll — " 

"Miss  Trescott  is  ill —  "  said  Alice. 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Josie;  "it  has  passed  entirely! 
Only,  when  you  have  taken  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barslow 
to  the  hotel,  will  you  please  take  me  home?  Our 
little  supper-party — I  don't  feel  quite  equal  to  it, 
if  you  will  excuse  me ! ' ' 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
B  Welcome  to  TTClatl  Street  an&  "Qls. 

"WELCOME!"  intoned  Captain  Tolliver,  with  his 
hat  in  his  h.and,  bowing  low  to  Mrs.  Barslow.  "Wel 
come,  Madam  and  strh,  in  the  capacity  of  Latti- 
moreans!  That  we  shall  be  the  bettah  fo'  yo'  resi 
dence  among  us  t»he'  can  be  no  doubt.  That  you 
will  be  prospahed  beyond  yo'  wildest  dreams  I 
believe  equally  cehtain.  Welcome!" 

This  address  was  delivered  within  thirty  seconds  of 
the  time  of  our  arrival  at  our  old  rooms  in  the  Cen- 
tropolis.  The  Captain  saluted  us  in  a  manner  extrav 
agantly  polite,  mysteriously  enthusiastic.  The  air 
of  mystery  was  deepened  when  he  called  again  to 
see  Mr.  Elkins  in  the  evening  and  was  invited  in. 

"Did  you-all  notice  that  distinguished  and  opulent- 
looking  gentleman  who  got  off  the  train  this  evening? " 
said  he  in  a  stage  whisper.  "Mahk  my  words,  the 
coming  of  such  men,  his  coming,  is  fraught  with  the 
deepest  significance  to  us  all.  All  my  holdin's  ah 
withdrawn  from  mahket  until  fu'the'  developments!" 

"Seems  to  travel  in  style,"  said  Jim;  "all  sorts  of 
good  clothes,  colored  body-servant,  closed  carriage 
ordered  by  wire — it  does  look  juicy,  don't  it,  now?" 

"He  has  the  entiah  second  flo'  front  suite.  The 

77 


78    A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us. 

niggah  has  already  sent  out  fo'  a  bahbah,"  said  the 
Captain.  "  Lattimore  has  at  last  attracted  the 
notice  of  adequate  capital,  and  will  now  assume 
huh  true  place  in  the  bright  galaxy  of  American  cities. 
Mr.  Barslow,  I  shall  ask  puhmission  to  call  upon  you 
in  the  mo'nin'  with  reference  to  a  project  which  will 
make  the  fo 'tunes  of  a  dozen  men,  and  that  within  the 
next  ninety  days.  Good  evenin',  suh;  good  evenin', 
Madam.  I  feel  that  you  have  come  among  us  at  a 
propitious  moment!" 

"The  Captain  merely  hints  at  the  truth  which 
struggles  in  him  for  utterance,"  said  Jim.  "I  prove 
this  by  informing  you  that  I  couldn't  get  you  a 
house.  This  shows,  too,  that  the  census  returns 
are  a  calumny  upon  Lattimore.  You'll  have  to  stay 
at  the  Centropolis  until  something  turns  up  or 
you  can  build." 

"Oh,  dear!"  said  Alice.  " Hotel  life  isn't  living  at 
all.  I  hope  it  won't  be  long." 

"It  will  have  its  advantages  for  Al,"  said  Mr. 
Elkins.  "This  financial  maelstrom,  which  will  draw 
everything  to  Lattimore,  will  have  its  core  right  in 
this  hotel — a  mighty  good  place  to  be.  Things  of 
all  kinds  have  been  floating  about  in  the  air  for 
months;  the  precipitation  is  beginning  now.  The 
psychological  moment  has  arrived — you  have 
brought  it  with  you,  Mrs.  Barslow.  The  moon- 
flower  of  Lattimore 's  '  gradual,  healthy  growth  '  is 
going  to  burst,  and  that  right  soon." 

"Has  Captain  Tolliver  infected  you?"  inquired 
Alice.  "He  told  us  the  same  thing,  with  less  of 
tropes  and  figures," 


A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us.   79 

"On  any  still  morning,"  said  Jim,  "you  can  hear 
the  wheels  go  round  in  the  Captain's  head;  but  his 
instinct  for  real-estate  conditions  is  as  accurate  as  a 
pocket-gopher's.  The  Captain,  in  a  hysterical  sort 
of  way,  is  right :  I  consider  that  a  cinch.  Good-night, 
friends,  and  pleasant  dreams.  I  expect  to  see  you 
at  breakfast;  but  if  I  shouldn't,  Al,  you'll  come 
aboard  at  nine,  won't  you,  and  help  run  up  the  Jolly 
Roger?  I  think  I  smell  pieces-of -eight  in  the  air! 
And,  by  the  way,  Miss  Trescott  says  for  me  to  assure 
you  that  her  vertigo,  which  she  had  for  the  first 
time  in  her  life,  is  gone,  and  she  never  felt  better." 

As  Mr.  Elkins  passed  from  our,  parlor,  he  let  in  a 
bell-boy  with  the  card  of  Mr.  Clifford  Giddings, 
representing  the  Lattimore  Morning  Herald. 

"See  him  down  in  the  lobby,"  said  Alice. 

"I  want  a  story,"  said  he  as  we  met,  "on  the  city 
and  its  future.  The  Herald  readers  will  be  glad  of 
anything  from  Mr.  Barslow,  whose  coming  they 
have  so  long  looked  forward  to,  as  intimately  con 
nected  with  the  city's  development." 

"My  dear  sir,"  I  replied,  somewhat  astonished 
at  the  importance  which  he  was  pleased  to  attach  to 
my  arrival,  "abstractly,  my  removal  to  Lattimore 
is  my  best  testimony  on  that;  concretely,  I  ought 
to  ask  information  of  you." 

We  sat  down  in  a  corner  of  the  lobby,  our  chairs 
side  by  side,  facing  opposite  ways.  He  lighted  a  cigar, 
and  gave  me  one.  In  looks  he  was  young;  in 
behavior  he  had  the  self-possession  and  poise  of 
maturity.  He  wore  a  long  mackintosh  which  spar 
kled  with  mist.  His  slouch  hat  looked  new  and 


80    A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us. 

was  carefully  dinted.  His  dress  was  almost  natty 
in  an  unconventional  way,  and  his  manners  accorded 
with  his  garb.  He  acted  as  if  for  years  we  had 
casually  met  daily.  His  tone  and  attitude  evinced 
respect,  was  entirely  free  from  presumption,  equally 
devoid  of  reserve,  carried  with  it  no  hint  of  famil 
iarity,  but  assumed  a  perfect  understanding.  The 
barrier  which  usually  keeps  strangers  apart  he 
neither  broke  down,  which  must  have  been  offensive, 
nor  overleaped,  which  would  have  been  presumptu 
ous.  He  covered  it  with  that  demeanor  of  his,  and 
together  we  sat  down  upon  it. 

"I  thought  the  Herald  was  an  evening  paper," 
said  I. 

"It  was,  in  the  days  of  yore,"  he  replied;  "but 
Mr.  Elkins  happened  to  see  me  in  Chicago  one  day, 
and  advised  me  to  come  out  and  look  the  old  thing 
over  with  a  view  to  purchasing  the  plant.  You 
observe  the  result.  As  fellow  immigrants,  I  hope 
there  will  be  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  us.  You 
think,  of  course,  that  Lattimore  is  a  coming  city?" 

"Yes." 

"Its  geographical  situation  seems  to  render  its 
development  inevitable,  doesn't  it?  And,"  he  went 
on,  "the  railway  conditions  seem  peculiarly  prom 
ising  just  now?" 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "but  the  natural  resources  of  the 
city  and  the  surrounding  country  appeal  most 
strongly  to  me." 

"They  are  certainly  very  exceptional,  aren't  they?" 
said  he,  as  if  the  matter  had  never  occurred  to  him 
before.  Then  he  went  on  telling  me  things,  more 


A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us.    8 1 

than  asking  questions,  about  the  jobbing  trades, 
the  brick  and  tile  and  associated  industries,  the 
cement  factory,  which  he  spoke  of  as  if  actually  in 
esse,  the  projected  elevators,  the  flouring-mills,  and 
finally  returned  to-  railway  matters. 

"What  is  your  opinion  of  the  Lattimore  &  Great 
Western,  Mr.  Barslow?"  he  asked. 

"I  cannot  say  that  I  have  any,"  I  answered, 
"except  that  its  construction  would  bring  great  good 
to  Lattimore." 

"It  could  scarcely  fail,"  said  he,  "to  bring  in  two 
or  three  systems  which  we  now  lack,  could  it?" 

I  very  sincerely  said  that  I  did  not  know.  After 
a  few  more  questions  concerning  our  plans  for  the 
future,  Mr.  Giddings  vanished  into  the  night,  silently, 
as  an  autumn  leaf  parting  from  its  bough.  I  thought 
of  him  no  more  until  I  unfolded  the  Herald  in  the 
morning  as  we  sat  at  breakfast,  and  saw  that  my 
interview  was  made  a  feature  of  the  day's  news. 

"Mr.  Albert  F.  Barslow,"  it  read,  "of  the  firm  of 
Elkins  &  Barslow,  is  stopping  at  the  Centropolis. 
He  arrived  by  the  6:15  train  last  evening,  and  with 
his  family  has  taken  a  suite  of  rooms  pending  the 
erection  of  a  residence.  They  have  not  definitely 
decided  as  to  the  location  of  their  new  home;  but 
it  may  confidently  be  stated  that  they  will  build 
something  which  will  be  a  notable  addition  to  the 
architectural  beauties  of  Lattimore — already  proud 
of  her  title,  the  City  of  Homes." 

"I  am  very  glad  to  know  about  this,"  said  Alice. 

"Your  man  Giddings  has  nerve,  whatever  else  he 
may  lack,"  said  I  to  the  smiling  Elkins  across  the  table. 


82   A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us. 

"Am  I  obliged  to  make  good  all  these  representations? 
I  ask,  that  I  may  know  the  rules  of  the  game,  merely." 

"One  rule  is  that  you  mustn't  deny  any  accusa 
tions  of  future  magnificence,  for  two  reasons:  they 
may  come  true,  and  they  help  things  on.  You  are 
supposed  to  have  left  your  modesty  in  cold  storage 
somewhere.  Read  on." 

"Mr.  Barslow,"  I  read,  "  has  long  been  a  most  potent 
political  factor  in  his  native  state,  but  is,  first  of  all,  a 
business  man.  He  brings  his  charming  young  wife —  " 

"Really,  a  most  discriminating  journalist,"  inter 
jected  Alice. 

" — and  social  circles,  as  well  as  the  business 
world,  will  find  them  a  most  desirable  accession  to 
Lattimore's  population." 

"Why  this  is  absolute,  slavish  devotion  to  facts," 
said  Jim;  "where  does  the  word-painting  come  in?" 

"Here  it  is,"  said  I. 

"Mr.  Barslow  is  some  years  under  middle  age,  and 
looks  the  intense  modern  business  man  in  every  fea 
ture.  His  mind  seems  to  have  already  become 
saturated  with  the  conception  of  the  enormous 
possibilities  of  Lattimore.  He  impresses  those  who 
have  met  him  as  one  of  the  few  men  capable  of  pulling 
his  share  in  double  harness  with  James  R.  Elkins." 

"The  fellow  piles  it  on  a  little  strong  at  times, 
doesn't  he,  Mrs.  Barslow?"  said  Jim. 

"He  brings  to  our  city,"  I  read  on,  "his  vigorous 
mind,  his  fortune,  and  a  determination  never  to  rest 
until  the  city  passes  the  100,000  mark.  To  a  Herald 
representative,  last  night,  he  spoke  strongly  and 
eloquently  of  our  great  natural  resources." 


A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us.   83 

Then  followed  a  skillfully  handled  expansion  of 
our  tete-d-tete  talk  in  the  lobby. 

"Mr.  Barslow,"  the  report  went  on,  "very  cour 
teously  declined  to  discuss  the  L.  &  G.  W.  situation. 
It  seems  evident,  however,  from  remarks  dropped 
by  him,  that  he  regards  the  construction  of  this 
road  as  inevitable,  and  as  a  project  which,  success 
fully  carried  out,  cannot  fail  to  make  Lattimore  the 
point  to  which  all  the  Western  and  Southwestern  sys 
tems  of  railways  must  converge." 

"You're  doing  it  like  a  veteran!"  cried  Jim. 
Admirable!  Just  the  proper  infusion  of  mystery; 
I  couldn't  have  done  better  myself." 

"Credit  it  all  to  Giddings,"  I  protested.  "And 
note  that  the  center  of  the  stage  is  reserved  to  our 
mysterious  fellow  lodger  and  co-arrival." 

"Yes,  I  saw'that,"  said  Jim.  "Isn't  Giddings  a 
peach?  Let  Mrs.  Barslow  hear  it." 

"She  ought  to  be  able  to  hear  these  headlines," 
said  I,  "wit-hout  any  reading:  'J.  Bedford  Cornish 
arrives!  Wall  Street's  Millions  On  the  Ground  in 
the  Person  of  One  of  Her  Great  Financiers!  Bull 
Movement  in  Real  Estate  Noted  Last  Night!  Does 
He  Represent  the  Great  Railway  Interests?" 

"Real  estate  and  financial  circles,"  ran  the  article 
under  these,  headlines,  "are  thrown  into  something 
of  a  fever  by  the  arrival,  on  the  6:15  express  last 
evening,  of  a  gentleman  of  distinguished  appear 
ance,  who- took  five  rooms  en  suite  on  the  second  floor 
of  the  Centropolis,  and  registered  in  a  bold  hand  as 
J.  Bedford  Cornish,  of  New  York.  Mr.  Cornish  con 
sented  to  see  a  Herald  representative  last  night,  but 


84    A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us. 

was  very  reticent  as  to  his  plans  and  the  objects  of 
his  visit.  He  simply  says  that  he  represents  capital 
seeking  investment.  He  would  not  admit  that  he  is 
connected  with  any  of  the  great  railway  interests,  or 
that  his  visit  has  any  relation  to  the  building  of  the 
Lattimore  &  Great  Western.  The  Herald  is  able  to 
say,  however,  that  its  New  York  correspondent  in 
forms  it  that  Mr.  Cornish  is  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Lusch,  Carskaddan  &  Mayer,  of  Wall  Street.  This 
firm  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  concerns  handling 
large  amounts  of  European  capital,  and  said  to  be 
intimately  associated  with  the  Rothschilds.  Finan 
cial  journals  have  recently  noted  the  fact  that  these 
concerns  are  becoming  embarrassed  by  the  plethora 
of  funds  seeking  investment,  and  are  turning  their 
attention  to  the  development  of  railway  systems 
and  cities  in  the  United  States.  Their  South  Ameri 
can  and  Australian  investments  have  not  proven 
satisfactory,  especially  the  former,  owing  to  the  char 
acter  of  the  people  of  Latin  America.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  no  real-estate  investment  can  be 
more  than  moderately  profitable  in  climates  which 
render  the  people  content  with  a  mere  living,  and 
that  the  restless  and  unsatisfied  vigor  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  alone  can  make  lands  and  railways  perma 
nently  remunerative.  Mr.  Cornish  admitted  these 
facts  when  they  were  pointed  out  to  him,  and  imme 
diately  changed  the  subject. 

"Mr.  Cornish  is  a  very  handsome  and  opulent- 
looking  gentleman,  and  seems  to  live  in  a  style  some 
what  luxurious  for  the  Occident.  He  has  a  colored 
body -servant,  who  seems  to  reflect  the  mystery  of 


A  Welcome  to  Wall  Street  and  Us.   85 

his  master;  but  if  he  has  any  other  reflections,  the 
Herald  is  none  the  wiser  for  them.  Admittance  to 
the  suite  of  rooms  was  obtained  by  sending  in  the 
reporter's  card,  which  vanished  into  a  sybaritic 
gloom,  borne  on  a  golden  salver.  Mr.  Cornish 
seems  to  be  very  exclusive,  his  meals  being  served 
in  his  rooms;  and  even  his  barber  has  instructions 
to  call  upon  him  each  morning.  One  wonders  why 
the  barber  is  called  in  so  frequently,  until  one  marks 
the  smooth-shaven  cheeks  above  the  close-clipped, 
pointed,  black,  Vandyke  beard.  He  is  withal  very 
cordial  and  courtly  in  his  manners. 

"James  R.  Elkins,  when  seen  last  evening,  refused 
to  talk,  except  to  say  that,  in  financial  circles,  it  has 
been  known  for  some  days  that  important  develop 
ments  may  be  now  momently  expected,  and  that 
some  such  thing  as  the  visit  of  Mr.  Cornish  was 
imminent.  Captain  Marion,  Tolliver  expressed  him 
self  freely,  and  to  the  effect  that  this  mysterious 
visit  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  Lattimore,  and 
a  thing  of  national  if  not  world-wide  importance." 

"Now,  that  justifies  my  confidence  in  Giddings," 
said  Mr.  Elkins,  "fulfilling  at  the  same  time  the 
requirements  of  journalism  and  hypnotism.  Come, 
Al,  our  bark  is  on  the  sea,  our  boat  is  on  the  shore. 
The  Spanish  galleons  are  even  now  hiding  in  the  tall 
grass,  in  expectation  of  our  cruise.  Let  us  hence  to 
the  office! " 


CHAPTER  IX. 
fl  (3o  BboarD  an&  Ide  "dnfurl  tbe  3ollg  •Roger. 


"WE  must  act,  and  act  at  once!"  said  the  Captain, 
his  voice  thrilling  with  intensity.  "This  piece  of 
property  will  be  gone  befo'  night!  All  it  takes  is  a 
paltry  three  thousand  dolla's,  and  within  ninety 
days  —  no  man  can  say  what  its  value  will  be.  We 
can  plat  it,  and  within  ten  days  we  may  have  ouah 
money  back.  Allow  me  to  draw  on  you  fo'  three 
thou—  " 

"But,"  said  I,  "I  can  make  no  move  in  such  a 
matter  at  this  time  without  conference  with  Mr.  — 

"Very  well,  suh,  very  well!"  said  the  Captain, 
regarding  me  with  a  look  that  showed  how  much 
better  things  he  had  expected  of  me.  "Opportunity, 
suh,  knocks  once  —  By  the  way,  excuse  me,  suh!  " 

And  he  darted  from  the  office,  took  the  trail  of  Mr. 
Macdonald,  whom  he  had  seen  passing,  brought  him 
to  bay  in  front  of  the  post-office,  and  dragged  him 
away  to  some  doom,  the  nature  of  which  I  could  only 
surmise. 

This  took  place  on  the  morning  of  my  first  day 
with  Elkins  &  Barslow.  I  was  to  take  up  the  office 
work. 

86 


We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger.          87 

"That  will  be  easy  for  you  from  the  first,"  said 
Jim.  "Your  experience  as  rob-ee  down  there  in 
Posey  County  makes  you  a  sort  of  specialist  in  that 
sort  of  thing;  and  pretty  soon  all  other  things  shall 
be  added  unto  it." 

The  Captain's  onslaught  in  the  first  half-hour  ad 
monished  me  that  a  good  deal  was  already  added  to 
it.  On  that  very  day,  too,  we  had  our  first  confer 
ence  with  Mr.  Hinckley.  We  wanted  to  handle 
securities,  said  Mr.  Elkins,  and  should  have  a  great 
many  of  them,  and  that  was  quite  in  Mr.  Hinckley's 
line.  To  carry  them  ourselves  would  soon  absorb 
all  our  capital.  We  must  liberate  it  by  floating  the 
commercial  paper  which  we  took  in.  Mr.  Hinckley's 
bank  was  known  to  be  strong,  his  standing  was  of  the 
highest,  and  a  trust  company  in  alliance  with  him 
could  not  fail  to  find  a  good  market  for  its  paper. 
With  an  old  banker's  timidity,  Hinckley  seemed  to 
hesitate;  yet  the  prospects  seemed  so  good  that  I 
felt  that  this  consent  was  sure  to  be  given.  Jim 
courted  him  assiduously,  and  the  intimacy  between 
him  and  the  Hinckley  family  became  noticeable. 

"Jim,"  said  I,  one  day,  "you  have  an  unerring 
eye  for  the  pleasant  things  of  life.  I  couldn't  help 
thinking  of  this  to-day  when  I  saw  you  for  the 
twentieth  time  spinning  along  the  street  in  Miss 
Hinckley's  carriage,  beside  its  owner.  She's  one  of 
the  handsomest  girls,  in  her  flaxen-haired  way,  that 
I  know  of." 

"Isn't  she  a  study  in  curves  and  pink  and  white?" 
said  Jim.  "And  she  understands  this  trust  company 
business  as  well  as  her  father." 


88          We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger. 

The  trust  company's  stock,  he  went  on  to  explain, 
ignoring  Atonia,  seemed  to  be  already  oversub 
scribed.  Our  firm,  Hinckley,  and  Jim's  Chicago 
and  New  York  friends,  including  Harper,  all  stood 
ready  to  take  blocks  of  it,  and  there  was  no  reason 
for  requiring  Hinckley  to  put  much  actual  money 
in  for  this.  He  could  pay  for  it  out  of  his  profits 
soon,  and  make  a  fortune  without  any  outlay.  Good 
credit  was  the  prime  necessity,  and  that  Mr.  Hinckley 
certainly  had.  So  the  celebrated  Grain  Belt  Trust 
Company  was  begun — a  name  about  which  such 
mighty  interests  were  to  cluster,  that  I  know  I 
should  have  shrunk  from  the  responsibility  had  I 
known  what  a  gigantic  thing  we  were  creating. 

As  the  days  wore  on,  Captain  Tolliver's  dementia 
spread  and  raged  virulently.  The  dark-visaged 
Cornish,  with  his  air  of  mystery,  his  habits  so  at  odds 
with  the  society  of  Lattimore,  was  in  the  very  focus  of 
attention. 

For  a  day  or  so,  the  effect  which  Mr.  Giddings's 
report  attributed  to  his  invasion  failed  to  disclose 
itself  to  me.  Then  the  delirium  became  manifest,  and 
swept  over  the  town  like  a  were-wolf  delusion  through 
a  medieval  village. 

Its  immediate  occasion  seemed  to  be  a  group  of 
real-estate  conveyances,  announced  in  the  Herald 
one  morning,  surpassing  in  importance  anything 
in  the  history  of  the  town.  Some  of  the  lands 
transferred  were  acreage;  some  were  waste  and 
vacant  tracts  along  Brushy  Creek  and  the  river; 
one  piece  was  a  suburban  farm;  but  the  mass  of  it 
was  along  Main  Street  and  in  the  "business  district. 


We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger.          89 

The  grantees  were  for  the  most  part  strange  names 
in  Lattimore,  some  individuals,  some  corporations. 
All  the  sales  were  at  prices  hitherto  unknown.  It 
was  to  be  remarked,  too,  that  in  most  cases  the 
property  had  been  purchased  not  long  before,  by 
some  of  the  group  of  newer  comers  and  at  the  old 
modest  prices.  Our  firm  seemed  to  have  profited 
heavily  in  these  transactions,  as  had  Captain  Tolliver 
also.  We  of  the  "new  crowd"  had  begun  our  mock- 
trading  to  "establish  the  market."  Prices  were 
going  up,  up;  and  all  one  had  to  do  was  to  buy 
to-day  and  sell  to-morrow.  Real  values,  for  actual 
use,  seemed  to  be  forgotten. 

The  most  memorable  moment  in  this  first,  acutest 
stage  in  our  development  was  one  bright  day, 
within  a  week  or  so  of  our  coming.  The  lawns 
were  taking  on  their  summer  emerald,  robins  were 
piping  in  the  maples,  and  down  in  the  cotton  woods 
and  lindens  on  the  river  front  crows  and  jays  were 
jargoning  their  immemorial  and  cheery  lingo.  Sur- 
vevors  were  running  lines  and  making  plats  in  the 
suburbs,  peeped  at  by  gophers,  and  greeted  by  the 
roundelays  of  meadow-larks.  But  on  the  street- 
corners,  in  the  offices  of  lawyers  and  real-estate  agents, 
and  in  the  lobbies  of  the  hotels,  the  trading  was  lively. 

Then  for  the  first  time  the  influx  of  real  buyers 
from  the  outside  became  noticeable.  The  landlord 
of  the  Centropolis  could  scarcely  care  for  his  guests. 
They  talked  of  blocks,  quarter-blocks,  and  the  choice 
acreage  they  had  bought,  and  of  the  profits  they 
had  made  in  this  and  other  cities  and  towns  (where 
this  same  speculative  fever  was  epidemic),  until  Alice 


90          We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger. 

fled  to  the  Trescott  farm — as  she  said,  to  avoid  the 
mixture  of  real  estate  with  her  meals.  The  tele 
graph  offices  were  gorged  with  messages  to  non-resi 
dent  property  owners,  begging  for  prices  on  good 
inside  lots.  Staid,  slow-going  lot-owners,  who  had 
grown  old  in  patiently  paying  taxes  on  patches  of 
dog-fennel  and  sand-burrs,  dazedly  vacillated  be 
tween  acceptance  and  rejection  of  tempting  proposi 
tions,  dreading  the  missing  of  the  chance  so  long 
awaited,  fearing  misjudgment  as  to  the  height  of  the 
wave,  dreading  a  future  of  regret  at  having  sold  too 
low. 

One  of  these,  an  old  woman,  toothless  and  bent, 
hobbled  to  our  office  and  asked  for  Mr.  Elkins. 
He  was  busy,  and  so  I  received  her. 

"It's  about  that  quarter-block  with  the  Donegal 
ruin  on  it,"  said  Jim;  "the  one  I  showed  you  yester 
day.  Offer  her  five  thousand,  one-fourth  down, 
balance  in  one,  two,  and  three  years,  eight  per 
cent." 

"I  wanted  to  ask  Mr.  Elkins  about  me  home," 
said  she.  "I  tuk  in  washin'  to  buy  it,  an'  me  son, 
poor  Patsy,  God  rist  'is  soul,  he  helped  wid  th'  bit 
of  money  from  the  Brotherhood,  whin  he  was  kilt 
betune  the  cars.  It  was  sivin  hundred  an'  fifty 
dollars,  an'  now  Thronson  offers  me  four  thousan'. 
I  told  him  I'd  sell,  fer  it's  a  fortune  for  a  workin' 
woman;  but  befure  I  signed  papers,  I  wanted  to  ask 
Mr.  Elkins;  he's  such  a  fair-spoken  man,  an'  knowin' 
to  me  min-folks  in  Peoria." 

"If  you  want  to  sell,  Mrs.  Collins,"  said  I,  "we  will 
take  your  property  at  five  thousand  dollars." 


We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger.         91 

She  started,  and  regarded  me,  first  in  amazement, 
then  with  distrust,  shading  off  into  hostility. 

"Thank  ye  kindly,  sir,"  said  she;  "I'll  be  goin' 
now.  I've  med  up  me  moind,  if  that  bit  of  land  is 
wort  all  that  money  t'  yees,  it's  wort  more  to  me. 
Thank  ye  kindly!"  and  she  fled  from  the  presence  of 
the  tempter. 

"The  town  is  full  of  Biddy  Collinses,"  commented 
Jim.  "Well,  we  can't  land  everything,  and  couldn't 
handle  the  catch  if  we  did.  In  fact,  for  present  pur 
poses,  isn't  it  better  to  have  her  refuse?" 

This  incident  was  the  hint  upon  which  our  "Syndi 
cate,"  as  it  came  to  be  called,  acted  from  time  to 
time,  in  making  fabulous  offers  to  every  Biddy 
Collins  in  town.  "Offer  twenty  thousand,"  Jim 
would  say.  "The  more  you  bid  the  less  apt  is  he  to 
accept;  he's  a  Biddy  Collins."  And  whatever  Mr. 
Elkins  advised  was  done. 

There  were  eight  or  ten  of  us  in  the  "Syndicate," 
dubbed  by  Jim  "The  Crew,"  among  whom  were 
Tolliver,  Macdonald,  and  Will  Lattimore.  But  the 
inner  circle,  now  drawing  closer  and  closer  together, 
were  Elkins,  our  ruling  spirit;  Hinckley,  our  great 
force  in  the  banking  world ;  and  myself.  Soon,  I  was 
given  to  understand,  Mr.  Cornish  was  to  take  his 
place  as  one  of  us.  He  and  Jim  had  long  known  each 
other,  and  Mr.  Elkins  had  the  utmost  confidence  in 
Mr.  Cornish's  usefulness  in  what  he  called  "the 
thought-transference  department." 

Elkins  &  Barslow  kept  their  offices  open  night 
and  day,  almost,  and  the  number  of  typewriters  and 
bookkeepers  grew  astoundingly.  I  became  almost  a 


92          We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger. 

stranger  to  my  wife.  I  got  hurried  glimpses  of 
Miss  Trescott  and  her  mother  at  the  hotel,  and  knew 
that  she  and  Alice  were  becoming  fast  friends;  but 
so  far  the  social  prominence  which  the  Herald  had 
predicted  for  us  had  failed  to  arrive. 

This,  to  be  sure,  was  our  own  fault.  Miss  Addison 
soon  gave  us  up  as  not  available  for  the  church  and 
Sunday-school  functions  to  which  she  devoted  herself. 
Her  family  connections  would  have  made  her  the 
social  leader  had  it  not  been  for  the  severity  of  her 
views  and  her  assumption  of  the  character  of  the 
devotee — in  spite  of  which  she  protestingly  went 
almost  everywhere.  Antonia  Hinckley,  however, 
was  frankly  fond  of  a  good  time,  and  with  her  dashing 
and  almost  hoydenish  character  easily  took  the 
leadership  from  Miss  Addison;  and  Miss  Hinckley 
sought  diligently  for  means  by  which  we  could  be 
properly  launched.  As  I  left  the  office  one  day,  a 
voice  from  the  curb  called  my  name.  It  was  Miss 
Hinckley  in  a  smart  trap,  to  which  was  harnessed 
a  beautiful  horse,  standard  bred,  one  could  see  at  a 
glance.  I  obeyed  the  summons,  and  stepped  beside 
the  equipage. 

"I  want  to  scold  you,"  said  she.  "Society  is 
being  defrauded  of  the  good  things  which  your 
coming  promised.  Have  you  taken  a  vow  of  seclu 
sion,  or  what?" 

"I've  been  spinning  about  in  the  maelstrom  of 
business,"  I  replied.  "But  do  not  be  uneasy; 
some  time  we  shall  take  up  the  matter  of  inflicting 
ourselves,  and  pursue  it  as  vigorously  as  we  now 
follow  our  vocation." 


We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger.         93 

"Wouldn't  you  like  to  get  into  the  trap,  and  take 
a  spin  of  another  sort?"  said  she.  "I'll  deposit  you 
safely  with  Mrs.  Barslow  in  time  for  tea." 

I  got  in,  glad  of  the  drive,  and  for  ten  minutes  her 
horse  was  sent  at  such  a  pace  that  conversation  was 
difficult.  Then  he  was  slowed  down  to  a  walk,  his 
head  toward  home.  We  chatted  of  casual  things — 
the  scenery,  the  horse,  the  splendid  color  of  the 
sunset.  I  was  becoming  interested  in  her. 

"I  had  almost  forgotten  that  there  were  such 
things  in  Lattimore,"  said  I,  referring  to  the  topics  of 
our  talk.  "I  have  become  so  saturated  with  lands 
and  lots." 

"I  don't  know  much  about  business,"  said  she, 
"and  I  think  I'll  improve  my  opportunity  by  learn 
ing  something.  And,  first,  aren't  men  sometimes 
losers  by  the  dishonesty  of  those  who  act  for  them — 
agents,  they  are  called,  aren't  they?" 

Such,  I  admitted,  was  unfortunately  the  case. 

"I  should  be  sorry  for — any  one  I  liked — to  be 
injured  in  such  a  way  .  .  .  Now  you  must  understand 
how  the  things  you  men  are  interested  in  permeate 
the  society  of  us  women.  Why,  mamma  has  almost 
forgotten  the  enslavement  of  our  sex,  in  these  new 
things  which  have  changed  our  old  town  so  much; 
so  you  mustn't  wonder  if  I  have  heard  something  of 
a  purely  business  nature.  I  heard  that  Captain 
Tolliver  was  about  to  sell  Mr.  Elkins  the  land  where 
the  old  foundry  is,  over  there,  for  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  Now,  papa  says  it  isn't  worth  it;  and  I 
know— Sadie  Allen  and  I  were  in  school  together, 
and  she  comes  over  from  Fairchild  several  times  a 


94          We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger. 

year  to  see  me,  and  I  go  there,  you  know;  and  that 
land  is  in  her  father's  estate— I  know  that  the  execu 
tor  has  told  Captain  Tolliver  to  sell  it  for  ever  so 
much  less  than  that.  And  it  seemed  so  funny, 
as  the  Captain  was  doing  the  business  for  both  sides — 
isn't  it  odd,  now?" 

"It  does  seem  so,"  said  I,  "and  it  is  very  kind 
of  you.  I'll  talk  with  Mr.  Elkins  about  it.  Please 
be  careful,  Miss  Hinckley,  or  you'll  drop  the  wheel 
in  that  washout!  " 

She  reined  up  her  horse  and  began  speeding  him 
again.  I  could  see  that  this  conversation  had  embar 
rassed  her  somehow.  Her  color  was  high,  and  her 
grip  of  the  reins  not  so  steady  as  at  starting.  This 
attempt  to  do  Jim  a  favor  was  something  she  con 
sidered  as  of  a  good  deal  of  consequence.  I  began 
to  note  more  and  more  what  a  really  splendid  woman 
she  was — tall,  fair,  her  tailor-made  gown  rounding 
to  the  full,  firm  curves  of  her  figure,  her  fearless 
horsemanship  hinting  at  the  possession  of  large  and 
positive  traits  of  character. 

"We  women,"  said  she,  "might  as  well  abandon 
all  the  things  commonly  known  as  feminine.  What 
good  do  they  do  us?" 

"They  gratify  your  sense  of  the  beautiful,"  sug 
gested  I. 

"You  know,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  she,  "that  it's  not 
our  own  sense  of  the  beautiful,  mainly,  that  we  seek 
to  gratify ;  and  if  the  eyes  for  which  they  are  intended 
are  looking  into  ledgers  and  blind  to  everything 
except  dollar-signs,  what's  the  use?" 


We  Unfurl  the  Jolly  Roger.          95 

"  Go  down  to  the  seashore,"  said  I,  "where  the 
people  congregate  who  have  nothing  to  do." 

"Not  I,"  said  she;  "I'll  go  into  real  estate,  and 
become  as  blind  as  the  rest!" 

Jim  paid  no  attention  to  my  chaffing  when  I 
spoke  of  his  conquest,  as  I  called  Antonia.  In  fact, 
he  seemed  annoyed,  and  for  a  long  time  said  nothing. 

"You  can  see  how  the  Allen  estate  proposition 
stands,"  said  he,  at  last.  "To  let  that  sell  for  less 
than  twenty  thousand  might  cost  us  ten  times  that 
amount  in  lowering  the  prevailing  standard  of 
values.  The  old  rule  that  we  should  buy  in  the  cheap 
est  market  and  sell  in  the  dearest  is  suspended.  Base 
is  the  slave  who  pays — less  than  the  necessary  and 
proper  increase." 


CHAPTER    X. 
Dedicate  Xgnburet 

THE  Hindu  adept  sometimes  suspends  before  the 
eyes  of  his  subject  a  bright  ball  of  carnelian  or 
crystal,  in  the  steady  contemplation  of  which  the 
sensitive  swims  off  into  the  realms  of  subjectivity — 
that  mysterious  bourn  from  whence  no  traveler 
brings  anything  back.  J.  Bedford  Cornish  was  Mr. 
Elkins's  glittering  ball;  his  psychic  subject  was  the 
world  in  general  and  Lattimore  in  particular.  Sci 
entific  principles,  confirmed  by  experience,  led  us  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  attitude  of  fixed  contempla 
tion  carried  with  it  some  nervous  strain,  ought  to  be 
of  limited  duration,  and  hence  that  Mr.  Cornish 
should  remove  from  our  midst  the  glittering  mystery 
of  his  presence,  lest  familiarity  should  breed  contempt. 
So  in  about  ten  days  he  went  away,  giving  to  the 
Herald  a  parting  interview,  in  which  he  expressed 
unbounded  delight  with  Lattimore,  and  hinted  that 
he  might  return  for  a  longer  stay.  Editorially,  the 
Herald  expressed  the  hope  that  this  characteristically 
veiled  allusion  to  a  longer  sojourn  might  mean  that 
Mr.  Cornish  had  some  idea  of  becoming  a  citizen  of 
Lattimore.  This  would  denote,  the  editorial  con- 

96 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.         97 

tinned,  that  men  like  Mr.  Cornish,  accustomed  to  the 
mighty  world-pulse  of  New  York,  could  find  objects 
of  pursuit  equally  worthy  in  Lattimore. 

"Which  is  mixed  metaphor,"  Mr.  Giddings  ad 
mitted  in  confidence;  "but,"  he  continued,  "if 
metaphors,  like  drinks,  happen  to  be  more  potent 
mixed,  the  Herald  proposes  to  mix  'em." 

All  these  things  consumed  time,  and  still  our  life 
was  one  devoted  to  business  exclusively.  At  last 
Mr.  Elkins  himself,  urged,  I  feel  sure,  by  Antonia 
Hinckley,  gave  evidence  of  weariness. 

"Al,"  said  he  one  day,  "don't  you  think  it's  about 
time  to  go  ashore  for  a  carouse? " 

"Unless  something  in  the  way  of  a  let-up  comes 
soon,"  said  I,  "the  position  of  lieutenant,  or  first  mate, 
or  whatever  my  job  is  piratically  termed,  will  become 
vacant.  The  pace  is  pretty  rapid.  Last  night  I 
dreamed  that  the  new  Hotel  Elkins  was  founded  on 
my  chest ;  and  I  have  had  troubles  enough  of  the  same 
kind  before  to  show  me  that  my  nervous  system  is 
slowly  ravelling  out." 

"I  have  arrangements  made,  in  my  mind,  for  a 
sort  of  al  fresco  function,  to  come  off  about  the 
time  Cornish  gets  back  with  our  London  visitor," 
he  replied,  "which  ought  to  knit  up  the  ravelled 
sleeve  better  than  new.  I'm  going  to  dedicate 
Lynhurst  Park  to  the  nymphs  and  deities  of  sport— 
which  wrinkled  care  derides." 

"I  hadn't  heard  of  Lynhurst  Park,"  I  was  forced 
to  say.  "  I'm  curious  to  know,  first,  who  named  it, 
and,  second,  where  it  is." 

"Didn't  I  show  you  those  blue-prints?"  he  asked. 


98         We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

"  An  oversight  I  assure  you.  As  for  the  scheme,  you 
suggested  it  yourself  that  night  we  first  drove  out 
to  Trescott's.  Don't  you  remember  saying  some 
thing  about  'breathing  space  for  the  populace'? 
Well,  I  had  the  surveys  made  at  once;  contracted 
for  the  land,  all  but  what  Bill  owns  of  it,  which  we'll 
have  to  get  later;  and  had  a  landscapist  out  from 
Chicago  to  direct  us  as  to  what  we  ought  to  admire  in 
improving  the  place.  As  for  the  name,  I'm  indebted 
to  kind  nature,  which  planted  the  valley  in  bass- 
wood,  and  to  Josie,  who  contributed  the  philological 
knowledge  and  the  taste.  That's  the  street-car 
line,"  said  he,  unrolling  an  elaborate  plat  and  point 
ing.  ' '  We  may  throw  it  over  to  the  west  to  develop 
section  seven,  if  we  close  for  it.  Otherwise,  that 
line  is  the  very  thing." 

Our  street-railway  franchise  had  been  granted 
by  the  Lattimore  city  council — they  would  have 
granted  the  public  square,  had  we  asked  for  it  in  the 
potent  name  of  "progress" — and  Cornish  was  even 
now  making  arrangements  for  placing  our  bonds. 
The  impossible  of  less  than  a  year  ago  was  now 
included  in  the  next  season's  program,  as  an  inconsid 
erable  feature  of  a  great  project  for  a  street-railway 
system,  and  the  "development"  of  hundreds  of 
acres  of  land. 

The  place  so  to  be  named  Lynhurst  Park  was 
most  agreeably  reached  by  a  walk  up  Brushy  Creek 
from  Lattimore.  Such  a  stroll  took  one  into  the 
gorge,  where  the  rocks  shelved  toward  each  other, 
until  their  crowning  fringes  of  cedar  almost  inter 
locked,  like  the  eyelashes  of  drowsiness.  Down 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.          99 

there  in  the  twilight  one  felt  a  sense  of  being  de 
frauded,  in  contemplation  of  the  fact  that  the  stream 
was  troutless:  it  was  such  an  ideal  place  for  trout. 
The  quiet  and  mellow  gloom  made  the  gorge  a  fa 
vorite  trysting-place,  and  perhaps  the  cool-blooded 
stream-folk  had  fled  from  the  presence  of  the  more 
fervid  dwellers  on  the  banks.  In  the  crevices  of 
the  rocks  were  the  nests  of  the  village  pigeons.  The 
combined  effects  of  all  these  causes  was  to  make  this  a 
spot  devoted  to  billing  and  cooing. 

Farther  up  the  stream  the  rock  walls  grew  lower 
and  parted  wider,  islanding  a  rich  bottom  of  lush 
grass-plot,  alternating  with  groves  of  walnut,  linden, 
and  elm.  This  was  the  Lynhurst  Park  of  the  blue 
prints  and  plats.  Trescott's  farm  lay  on  the  right 
bank,  and  others  on  either  side;  but  the  houses 
were  none  of  them  near  the  stream,  and  the  entire 
walk  was  wild  and  woodsy-looking.  None  but 
nature-lovers  came  that  way.  Others  drove  out  by 
the  road  past  Trescott's,  seeing  more  of  corn  and 
barn,  but  less  of  rock,  moss,  and  fern. 

Mr.  Cornish  was  to  return  on  Friday  with  the 
Honorable  De  Forest  Barr-Smith,  who  lived  in 
London  and  "represented  English  capital."  To 
us  Westerners  the  very  hyphen  of  his  name  spoke 
eloquently  of  £  s.  d.  Through  him  we  hoped  to  get 
the  money  to  build  that  street  railway.  Cornish 
had  written  that  Mr.  Barr-Smith  wanted  to  look  the 
thing  over  personally;  and  that,  given  the  element 
of  safety,  his  people  would  much  prefer  an  invest 
ment  of  a  million  to  one  of  ten  thousand.  Cornish 
further  hinted  that  the  London  gentleman  acted 


ioo       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

like  a  man  who  wanted  a  side  interest  in  the  con 
struction  company;  as  to  which  he  would  sound  him 
further  by  the  way. 

"He'll  expect  something  in  the  way  of  birds  and 
bottles,"  observed  Elkins;  "but  they  won't  mix 
with  the  general  society  of  this  town,  where  the  worm 
of  the  still  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  the  original 
Edenic  tempter.  And  he'll  want  to  inspect  Lyn 
hurst  Park.  I  want  him  to  see  our  beauty  and  our 
chivalry, — meaning  the  ladies  and  Captain  Tolliver, — 
and  the  rest  of  our  best  people.  I  guess  we'll  have 
to  make  it  a  temperate  sort  of  orgy,  making  up  in 
the  spectacular  what  it  lacks  in  spirituousness." 

Mr.  Cornish  came,  gradually  moulting  his  mystery; 
but  still  far  above  the  Lattimore  standard  in  dress 
and  style  of  living.  In  truth,  he  always  had  a  good 
deal  of  the  swell  in  his  make-up,  and  can  almost 
be  acquitted  of  deceit  in  the  impressions  conveyed 
at  his  coming.  The  Honorable  De  Forest  Barr-Smith 
fraternized  with  Cornish,  as  he  could  with  no  one 
else.  No  one  looking  at  Mr.  Cornish  could  harbor  a 
doubt  as  to  his  morning  tub;  and  his  evening  dress 
was  always  correct.  With  Jim,  Mr.  Barr-Smith 
went  into  the  discussion  of  business  propositions 
freely  and  confidentially.  I  feel  sure  that  had  he 
greatly  desired  a  candid  statement  of  the  very  truth 
as  to  local  views,  or  the  exact  judgment  of  one  on  the 
spot,  he  would  have  come  to  me.  But  between  nim 
and  Cornish  there  was  the  stronger  sympathy  of  a 
common  understanding  of  the  occult  intricacies  of 
clothes,  and  a  view-point  as  to  the  surface  of  things, 
embracing  manifold  points  of  agreement.  Cornish's 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.        101 

unerring  conformity  of  vogue  in  the  manner  and 
as  to  the  occasion  of  wearing  the  tuxedo  or  the  claw 
hammer  coat  was  clearly  restful  to  Mr.  Barr-Smith, 
in  this  new  and  strange  country,  where,  if  danger 
was  to  be  avoided,  things  had  to  be  approached 
with  distended  nostril  and  many  preliminary  snuffings 
of  the  wind. 

There  came  with  these  two  a  younger  brother  of 
Mr.  Barr-Smith,  Cecil — a  'big  young  civil  eningeer, 
just  out  of  college,  and  as  like  his  brother  in  accent 
and  dress  as  could  be  expected  of  one  of  his  years; 
but  national  characteristics  are  matters  of  growth, 
and  college  boys  all  over  the  world  are  a  good  deal 
alike.  Cecil  Barr-Smith,  with  his  red  mustache, 
his  dark  eyes,  and  his  six  feet  of  British  brawn,  was 
nearer  in  touch  with  our  younger  people  that  first 
day  than  his  honorable  brother  ever  became.  To 
Antonia,  especially,  he  took  kindly,  and  respectfully 
devoted  himself. 

"At  this  distance,"  said  Mr.  Barr-Smith,  as  he  saw 
his  brother  sitting  on  the  grass  at  Miss  Hinckley's 
feet,  "I'd  think  them  brother  and  sister.  She 
resembles  sister  Gritty  remarkably;  the  same  com 
plexion  and  the  same  style,  you  know.  Quite  so!  " 

The  Lynhurst  function  was  the  real  introduction 
of  these  three  gentlemen  to  Lattimore  society.  I 
knew  nothing  of  the  arrangements,  except  what  I 
could  deduce  from  Jim's  volume  of  business  with 
caterers  and  other  handicraftsmen;  and  I  looked 
forward  to  the  fete  with  much  curiosity.  The 
weather,  that  afternoon,  made  an  outing  quite  the 
natural  thing;  for  it  was  hot.  The  ladies  in  their 


102       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

most  summery  gowns  fluttered  like  white  dryads 
from  shade  to  shade,  uttering  bird-like  pipings  of 
surprise  at  the  preparations  made  for  their  enter 
tainment. 

The  ravine  had  been  transformed.  At  an  available 
point  in  its  bed  Jim  had  thrown  a  dam  across  the 
stream,  and  a  beautiful  little  lake  rippled  in  the  breeze, 
bearing  on  its  bosom  a  bright-colored  boat,  which  in 
our  ignorance  of  things  Venetian  we  mistakenly 
dubbed  a  gondola.  At  the  upper  end  of  this  water 
the  canvas  of  a  large  pavilion  gleamed  whitely  through 
the  greenery,  displaying  from  its  top  the  British 
and  American  flags,  their  color  reflected  in  a  parti 
colored  streak  on  the  wimpling  face  of  the  lake.  The 
groves,  in  the  tops  of  which  the  woodpeckers,  warblers, 
and  vireos  disturbedly  carried  on  the  imperatively 
necessary  work  of  rearing  their  broods,  were  gay 
with  festoons  of  Chinese  lanterns  in  readiness  for  the 
evening.  Hammocks  were  slung  from  tree  to  tree, 
cushions  and  seats  were  arranged  in  cosy  nooks; 
and  when  my  wife  and  I  stepped  from  our  carriage, 
all  these  appliances  for  the  utilization  of  shade  and 
leisure  were  in  full  use.  The  "gondola"  was  making 
trips  from  the  cascade  (as  the  dam  was  already 
called)  to  the  pavilion,  carrying  loads  of  young 
people  from  whom  came  to  our  ears  those  peals  of 
merriment  which  have  everywhere  but  one  mean 
ing,  and  that  a  part  of  the  world-old  mystery  of  the 
way  of  a  man  with  a  maid. 

Jim  was  on  the  ground  early,  to  receive  the  guests 
and  keep  the  management  in  hand.  Josie  Trescott 
and  her  mother  walked  down  through  the  Trescott 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.        103 

pasture,  and  joined  Alice  and  me  under  one  of  the 
splendid  lindens,  where,  as  we  lounged  in  the  shade, 
the  sound  of  the  little  waterfall  filled  the  spaces  in 
our  talk.  Long  before  any  one  else  had  seen  them 
coming  through  the  trees,  Mr.  Elkins  had  spied  them, 
and  went  forward  to  meet  them  with  something 
more  than  the  hospitable  solicitude  with  which  he 
had  met  the  others.  In  fact,  the  principal  guests  of 
the  day  had  alighted  from  their  carriage  before 
Jim,  ensconced  in  a  hammock  with  Josie,  was  made 
aware  of  their  arrival.  I  am  not  quick  to  see  such 
things ;  but  to  my  eyes,  even,  the  affair  had  assumed 
interest  as  a  sort  of  public  flirtation.  I  had  not 
thought  that  Josie  would  so  easily  fall  into  deport 
ment  so  distinctly  encouraging.  She  was  altogether 
in  a  surprising  mood, — her  eyes  shining  as  with  some 
stimulant,  her  cheeks  a  little  flushed,  her  lips  scarlet, 
her  whole  appearance  suggesting  suppressed  excite 
ment.  And  when  Jim  rose  to  meet  his  guests,  she 
dismissed  him  with  one  of  those  charmingly  inviting 
glances  and  gestures  with  which  such  an  adorable 
woman  spins  the  thread  by  which  the  banished  one 
is  drawn  back, — and  then  she  disappeared  until 
the  dinner  was  served. 

The  green  crown  of  the  western  hill  was  throwing 
its  shadow  across  the  valley,  when  Mr.  Hinckley 
came  with  Mr.  Cornish  and  Mr.  Barr-Smith  in  a 
barouche;  followed  by  Antonia,  who  brought  Mr. 
Cecil  in  her  trap — and  a  concomitant  thrill  to  the 
company.  Mr.  Cornish,  in  his  dress,  had  struck  a 
happy  medium  between  the  habiliments  of  business 
and  those  of  sylvan  recreation.  Mr.  Barr-Smith 


104       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

on  the  other  hand,  was  garbed  cap-a-pie  for  an  out 
ing,  presenting  an  appearance  with  which  the  racket, 
the  bat,  or  even  the  alpenstock  might  have  been 
conjoined  in  perfect  harmony.  As  for  the  men  of 
Lattimore,  any  one  of  them  would  as  soon  have  been 
seen  in  the  war-dress  of  a  Sioux  chief  as  in  this 
entirely  correct  costume  of  our  British  visitor.  We 
walked  about  in  the  e very-day  vestments  of  the  shops, 
banks,  and  offices,  illustrating  the  difference  between 
a  state  of  society  in  which  apparel  is  regarded  as  an 
incident  in  life,  and  one  rising  to  the  height  of  realiz 
ing  its  true  significance  as  a  religion.  Mr.  Barr- 
Smith  bowed  not  the  knee  to  the  Baal  of  western 
clothes-monotone,  but  daily  sent  out  his  sartorial 
orisons,  keeping  his  windows  open  toward  the  Jeru 
salem  of  his  London  tailor,  in  a  manner  which  would 
have  delighted  a  Teufelsdrockh. 

He  was  a  short  man,  with  protruding  cheeks, 
and  a  nose  ending  in  an  amorphous  flare  of  purple 
and  scarlet.  His  mustache,  red  like  that  of  his 
brother,  and  constituting  the  only  point  of  physical 
resemblance  between  them,  grew  down  over  a  reced 
ing  chin,  being  forced  thereto  by  the  bulbous  over 
hang  of  the  nose.  He  had  rufous  side-whiskers, 
clipped  moderately  close,  and  carroty  hair  mixed 
with  gray.  His  erect  shoulders  and  straight  back 
were  a  little  out  of  keeping  with  the  rotundity  of 
his  figure  in  other  respects;  but  the  combination, 
hinting,  as  it  did,  of  affairs  both  gastronomic  and 
martial,  taken  with  a  manner  at  once  dignified, 
formal,  and  suave,  constituted  the  most  intensely 
respectable  appearance  I  ever  saw.  To  the  imag- 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.        105 

ination  of  Lattimore  he  represented  everything  of 
which  Cornish  fell  short,  piling  Lombard  upon 
Wall  Street. 

The  arrival  of  these  gentlemen  was  the  signal 
for  gathering  in  the  pavilion  where  dinner  was 
served.  The  tables  were  arranged  in  a  great  L, 
at  the  apex  of  which  sat  Jim  and  the  distinguished 
guests.  On  one  side  of  him  sat  Mr.  Barr-Smith, 
who  listened  absorbedly  to  the  conversation  of  Mrs. 
Hinckley,  filling  every  pause  with  a  husky  "Quite 
so!"  On  the  other  sat  Josie  Trescott,  who  was 
smiling  upon  a  very  tall  and  spare  old  man  who 
wore  a  beautiful  white  mustache  and  imperial.  I 
had  never  met  him,  but  I  knew  him  for  General 
Lattimore.  His  fondness  for  Josie  was  well  known; 
and  to  him  Jim  attributed  that  young  lady's  lack 
of  enthusiasm  over  our  schemes  for  city-building. 
His  presence  at  this  gathering  was  somewhat  of  a 
surprise  to  me. 

Antonia  and  Cecil  Barr-Smith,  the  Tollivers,  Mr. 
Hinckley  and  Alice,  myself,  Mr.  Giddings,  and  Miss 
Addison  sat  across  the  table  from  the  host.  Mrs. 
Trescott,  after  expressing  wonder  at  the  changes 
wrought  in  the  ravine,  and  confiding  to  me  her  dis 
approval  of  the  useless  expense,  had  returned  to  the 
farm,  impelled  by  that  habitual  feeling  that  some 
thing  was  wrong  there.  Mr.  Giddings  was  exceedingly 
attentive  to  Miss  Addison. 

"I  know  why  you're  trying  to  look  severe,"  said 
he  to  her,  as  the  consomme*  was  served;  "and  it's 
the  only  thing  I  can  imagine  you  making  a  failure 
of,  unless  it  would  be  looking  anything  but  pretty. 


106       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

But  you  are  trying  it,  and  I  know  why.  You  think 
they  ought  to  have  had  some  one  say  grace  before 
pulling  this  thing  off." 

"I'm  not  trying  to  look — anyhow,"  she  answered. 
"But  you  are  right  in  thinking  that  I  believe  such 
duties  should  not  be  transgressed,  for  fear  that  the 
world  may  call  us  provincial  or  old-fashioned." 

And  she  shot  a  glance  at  Cornish  and  Barr-Smith 
as  the  visible  representatives  of  the  "world." 

"Don't  listen  to  that  age-old  clash  between  fervor 
and  unregeneracy,"  said  Josie  across  the  narrow 
table,  her  remarks  made  possible  by  the  music  of 
the  orchestra,  "but  tell  us  about  Mr.  Barr-Smith 
and — the  other  gentlemen." 

"I  wanted  to  ask  you  about  the  Britons,"  said  I; 
"are  they  good  specimens  of  the  men  you  saw  in 
England?" 

"An  art-student,  with  a  consciousness  of  guilt  in 
slowly  eating  up  the  year's  shipment  of  steers, 
isn't  likely  to  know  much  more  of  the  Barr- 
Smiths'  London  than  she  can  see  from  the  street. 
But  I  think  them  fine  examples  of  not  very  rare 
types.  I  should  like  to  try  drawing  the  elder 
brother! " 

"Before  he  goes  away,  I  predict —  "  I  began,  when 
my  villainous  pun  was  arrested  in  mid-utterance  by 
the  voice  of  Captain  Tolliver,  suddenly  becoming 
the  culminating  peak  in  the  table-talk. 

"The  Anglo-Saxon,  suh,"  he  was  saying,  "is 
found  in  his  greatest  purity  of  blood  in  ouah  Southe'n 
states.  It  is  thah,  suh,  that  those  qualities  of  virility 
and  capacity  fo'  rulership  which  make  the  race 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.       107 

what  it  is  ah  found  in  theiah  highest  development — 
on  this  side  of  the  watah,  suh,  on  this  side!" 

"Quite  so!  I  dare  say,  quite  so!"  responded  Mr. 
Barr-Smith.  "I  hope  to  know  the  people  of  the 
South  better.  In  fact,  I  may  say,  really,  you  know, 
an  occasion  like  this  gives  one  the  desire  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  whole  American  people." 

General  Lattimore,  whose  nostrils  flared  as  he 
leaned  forward  listening,  like  an  opponent  in  a  debate, 
to  the  remarks  of  Captain  Tolliver,  subsided  as  he 
heard  the  Englishman's  diplomatic  reply. 

"What's  the  use?"  said  he  to  Josie.  "He  may 
be  nearer  right  than  I  can  understand." 

"We  hope,"  said  Mr.  Elkins,"  that  this  desire  may 
be  focalized  locally,  and  grow  to  anything  short  of  a 
disease.  I  assure  you,  Lattimore  will  congratulate 
herself." 

Mr.  Barr-Smith 's  fingers  sought  his  glass,  as  if 
the  impulse  were  on  him  to  propose  a  toast ;  but  the 
liquid  facilities  being  absent,  he  relapsed  into  a  con 
versation  with  Mrs.  Hinckley. 

"I'd  say  those  things,  too,  if  I  were  in  his  place," 
came  the  words  of  Giddings,  overshooting  their 
mark,  the  ear  of  Miss  Addison;  "but  it's  all  rot. 
He's  disgusted  with  the  whole  barbarous  outfit  of 
us." 

"I  am  becoming  curious,"  was  the  sotto  voce 
reply,  "to  know  upon  what  model  you  found  your 
conduct,  Mr.  Giddings." 

"I  know  what  you  mean,"  said  Mr.  Giddings. 
"But  I  have  adopted  lago." 

"Why,  Mr.   Giddings!     How  shocking!     lago— 


io8       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

"Now,  don't  be  horrified,"  said  Giddings,  with  an 
air  of  candor,  "but  look  at  it  from  a  practical  stand 
point.  If  Othello  hadn't  been  such  a  fool,  lago 
would  have  made  his  point  all  right.  He  had  a  right 
to  be  sore  at  Othello  for  promoting  Cassio  over  his 
head,  and  his  scheme  was  a  good  one,  if  Othello  hadn't 
gone  crazy.  lago  is  dominated  by  reason  and  the 
principle  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  He  is  an 
agreeable  fellow — 

Miss  Addison,  with  a  charming  mixture  of  tragedy 
and  archness,  suppressed  this  blasphemy  by  a  gesture 
suggestive  of  placing  her  hand  over  the  editor's 
mouth. 

"Ah,  Mrs.  Hinckley,  you  shouldn't  do  us  such  an 
injustice!"  It  was  Mr.  Cornish,  who  took  the  center 
of  the  stage  now.  "You  seem  to  fail  to  realize  the 
fact  that,  in  any  given  gathering,  the  influence  of 
woman  is  dominant ;  and  as  the  entire  life  of  the  na 
tion  is  the  sum  total  of  such  gatherings,  woman  is 
already  in  control.  Now  how  can  you  fail  to  admit 
this?" 

I  missed  the  rather  extended  reply  of  Mrs.  Hinck 
ley,  in  noting  the  evident  impression  made  upon  the 
company  by  this  first  utterance  of  the  mysterious 
Cornish.  It  was  not  what  he  said:  that  was  not 
important.  It  was  the  dark,  bearded  face,  the  jetty 
eyes,  and  above  all,  I  think,  the  voice,  with  its  clear, 
carrying  quality,  combining  penetrativeness  with 
a  repression  of  force  which  gave  one  the  feeling  of 
being  addressed  in  confidence.  Every  man,  and 
especially  every  woman,  in  the  company,  looked 
fixedly  upon  him,  until  he  ceased  to  speak — all 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.       109 

except  Josie.  She  darted  at  him  one  look,  a  mere 
momentary  scrutiny,  and  as  he  discoursed  of  woman 
and  her  power,  she  seemed  to  lose  herself  in  contem 
plation  of  her  plate.  The  blush  upon  her  cheek 
became  more  rosy,  and  a  little  smile,  with  something 
in  it  which  was  not  of  pleasure,  played  about  the 
corners  of  her  mouth.  I  was  about  to  offer  her  the 
traditional  bargain-counter  price  for  her  thoughts, 
when  my  attention  was  commanded  by  Jim's  voice, 
answering  some  remark  of  Antonia's. 

"This  is  the  merest  curtain-riser,  just  a  sort  of 
kick-off,"  he  was  saying.  "In  a  year  or  two  this 
valley  will  be  the  pleasure-ground  of  all  the  country 
side,  a  hundred  miles  around.  This  tent  will  be 
replaced  by  a  restaurant  and  auditorium.  The  con 
ventions  and  public  gatherings  of  the  state  will  be 
held  here — there  is  no  other  place  for  'em;  and  our 
railway  will  bring  the  folks  out  from  town.  There 
will  be  baseball  grounds,  and  facilities  for  all  sorts  of 
sports;  and  outings  and  games  will  center  here.  I 
promise  you  the  next  regatta  of  the  State  Rowing 
Association,  and  a  street-car*  line  landing  passengers 
where  we  now  sit." 

"Hear,  hear!"  said  Mr.  Barr-Smith,  and  the  com 
pany  clapped  hands  in  applause. 

Mr.  Hinckley  was  introduced  by  Jim  as  "one  who 
had  seen  Lynhurst  Park  when  it  was  Indian  hunting- 
ground";  and  made  a  speech  in  which  he  welcomed 
Mr.  Cornish  as  a  new  citizen  who  was  already  promi 
nent.  Dining  in  this  valley,  he  said,  reminded  him 
of  the  time  when  he  and  two  other  guests  now  present 
had,  on  almost  the  identical  spot,  dined  on  venison 


1 10       We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park. 

dressed  and  cooked  where  it  fell.  Then  Lattimore 
was  a  trading-post  on  the  frontier,  surrounded  by 
the  tepees  of  Indians,  and  uncertain  as  to  its  lease 
of  life.  General  Lattimore,  who  shot  the  deer,  or 
Mr.  Macdonald,  who  helped  eat  it,  could  either  of 
them  tell  more  about  it.  Mr.  Barr-Smith  and  our 
other  British  guest  might  judge  of  the  rapidity  of 
development  in  this  country,  where  a  man  may  see 
in  his  lifetime  progress  which  in  the  older  states 
and  countries  could  be  discerned  by  the  student  of 
history  only. 

Mr.  Cornish  very  briefly  thanked  Mr.  Hinckley 
for  his  words  of  welcome;  but  begged  to  be  excused 
from  making  any  extended  remarks.  Deeds  were 
rather  more  in  his  line  than  words. 

"Title-deeds,"  said  Giddings  under  his  breath,  "as 
the  real-estate  transfers  show!" 

General  Lattimore  verified  Mr.  Hinckley's  state 
ment  concerning  the  meal  of  venison;  and,  politely 
expressing  pleasure  at  being  present  at  a  function 
which  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  of  so  much  impor 
tance  to  the  welfare  of  the  town  in  which  he  had 
always  taken  the  pride  of  a  godfather,  resumed  his 
seat  without  adding  anything  to  the  oratory  of  the 
boom. 

"In  fact,"  said  Captain  Tolliver  to  me,  "I  wahned 
Mr.  Elkins  against  having  him  hyah.  In  any  mattah 
of  progress  he's  a  wet  blanket,  and  has  proved  him 
self  such  by  these  remahks." 

Mr.  Barr-Smith,  in  response  to  the  allusions  to  him, 
assured  us  that  the  presence  of  people  such  as  he  had 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  in  Lattimore  was  suffi- 


We  Dedicate  Lynhurst  Park.       i  1 1 

cient  in  itself  to  account  for  the  forward  movement 
in  the  community,  which  the  visitor  could  not  fail  to 
observe. 

"  In  a  state  of  society  where  people  are  not  averse 
to  changing  their  abodes,"  he  said,  "and  where  the 
social  atom,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  is  in  a  state 
of  mobility,  the  presence  of  such  magnets  as  our 
toastmaster,  and  the  other  gentlemen  to  whose 
courteous  remarks  I  am  responding,  must  draw  'em 
to  themselves,  you  may  be  jolly  well  assured  of 
that!  And  if  the  gentlemen  should  fail,  the  thing 
which  should  resist  the  attractive  power  of  the 
American  ladies  must  be  more  fixed  in  its  habits 
than  even  the  conservative  English  gentleman,  who 
prides  himself  upon  his  stability,  er — ah — his  tak 
ing  a  position  and  sticking  by  it,  in  spite  of  the — 
of  anything,  you  know." 

As  his  only  contribution  to  the  speechmaking,  Mr. 
Cecil  Barr-Smith  greeted  this  sentiment  with  a  hearty 
"Hear,  hear!"  He  fell  into  step  with  Antonia  as 
we  left  the  pavilion.  Then  he  went  back  as  if  to 
look  for  something;  and  I  saw  Antonia  summon 
Mr.  Elkins  to  her  side  so  that  she  might,  congratulate 
him  on  the  success  of  this  "carouse." 

Everything  seemed  going  well.  There  was,  how 
ever,  in  that  gathering,  as  in  the  day,  material  for  a 
storm,  and  I,  of  all  those  in  attendance,  ought  to 
have  seen  it,  had  my  memory  been  as  unerring  as  I 
thought  it. 


CHAPTER  XL 
Bmpress  anO  Sit  5obn  flbeet  B0atn. 

THE  company  emerged  from  the  tent  into  the 
enchanted  outdoors  of  the  star-dotted  valley.  The 
moon  rode  high,  and  flooded  the  glades  with  silvery 
effulgency.  The  heat  of  the  day  had  bred  a  summer 
storm-cloud,  which,  all  quivery  with  lightning, 
seemed  sweeping  around  from  the  northwest  to  the 
north,  giving  us  the  delicious  experience  of  enjoying 
calm,  in  view  of  storm. 

The  music  of*  the  orchestra  soon  told  that  the 
pavilion  had  been  cleared  for  dancing.  I  heard 
Giddings  urging  upon  Miss  Addison  that  it  would 
be  much  better  for  them  to  walk  in  the  moonlight 
than  to  encourage  by  their  presence  such  a  worldly 
amusement,  and  one  in  which  he  had  never  been 
able  to  do  anything  better  than  fail,  anyhow.  Sigh 
ing  her  pain  at  the  frivolity  of  the  world,  she  took  his 
arm  and  strolled  away.  I  noticed  that  she  clung 
closely  to  him,  frightened,  I  suppose,  at  the  mys 
terious  rustlings  in  the  trees,  or  something. 

They  made  up  the  dances  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave 
me  out.  I  rather  wanted  to  dance  with  Antonia; 
but  Mr.  Cecil  was  just  leaving  her  in  disappointment, 

112 


The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again.    1 1  3 

in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Elkins,  when  I  went  for  her. 
I  decided  that  a  cigar  and  solitude  were  rather  to 
be  chosen  than  anything  else  which  presented  itself, 
and  accordingly  I  took  possession  of  one  of  the 
hammocks,  in  which  I  lay  and  smoked,  and  watched 
the  towering  thunder-head,  as  it  stood  like  a  mighty 
and  marvelous  mountain  in  the  northern  sky,  its 
rounded  and  convoluted  summits  serenely  white 
in  the  moonlight,  its  mysterious  caves  palpitant 
with  incessant  lightning.  The  soothing  of  the  cigar; 
the  new-made  lake  reflecting  the  gleam  of  hundreds 
of  lanterns;  the  illuminated,  pavilion,  its  whirling 
company  of  dancers  seen  under  the  uprolled  walls; 
the  night,  with  its  strange  contrast  of  a  calm  southern 
sky  on  the  one  hand  pouring  down  its  flood  of 
moonlight,  and  in  the  north  the  great  mother-of- 
pearl  dome  with  its  core  of  vibrant  fire;  the  dance- 
music  throbbing  through  the  lindens;  and  all  this 
growing  out  of  the  unwonted  and  curious  life  of 
the  past  few  months,  bore  to  me  again  that  feeling 
of  being  yoked  with  some  thaumaturge  of  wondrous 
power  for  the  working  of  enchantments.  Again  I 
seemed  in  a  partnership  with  Aladdin;  and  fairy 
pavilions,  sylvan  paradises,  bevies  of  dancing  girls, 
and  princes  bearing  gifts  of  gold  and  jewels,  had  all 
obeyed  our  conjuration.  I  could  have  walked 
down  to  the  naphtha  pleasure-boat  and  bidden  the 
engineer  put  me  down  at  Khorassan,  or  some  dream 
ful  port  of  far  Cathay,  with  no  sense  of  incongruity. 
Two  figures  came  from  the  tent  and  walked  toward 
me.  As  I  looked  at  them,  myself  in  darkness,  they  in 
the  light,  I  had  again  that  feeling  of  having  seen 


1 14  The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again. 

them  in  some  similar  way  before.  That  same  old 
sensation,  thought  I,  that  the  analytic  novelist 
made  trite  ages  ago.  Then  I  saw  that  it  was  Mr. 
Cornish  and  Miss  Trescott.  I  could  hear  them 
talking;  but  lay  still,  because  I  was  loth  to  have 
my  reveries  disturbed.  And  besides,  to  speak  would 
seem  an  unwarranted  assumption  of  confidential 
relations  on  their  part.  They  stopped  near  me. 

"Your  memory  is  not  so  good  as  mine,"  said  he. 
"I  knew  you  at  once.  Knew  you!  Why — 

"I'm  not  very  good  at  keeping  names  and  faces 
in  mind,"  she  replied,  "unless  they  belong  to  people  I 
have  known  very  well." 

"Indeed!"  his  voice  dropped  to  the  'cello-like 
undertone  now;  "isn't  that  a  little  unkind?  I 
fancied  that  we  knew  each  other  very  well!  My 
conceit  is  not  to  be  pandered  to,  I  perceive." 

"Ye-e-s — does  it  seem  that  way?"  said  she, 
ignoring  the  last  remark.  "Well,  you  know  it  was 
only  for  a  few  days,  and  you  kept  calling  yourself 
by  some  ridiculous  alias,  and  scarcely  used  your  sur 
name  at  all,  and  I  believe  they  called  you  Johnny — 
and  you  can't  think  what  a  disguise  such  a  beard  is! 
But  I  remember  you  now  perfectly.  It  quite 
brings  back  those  short  months,  when  I  was  so  young 
— and  was  finding  things  out!  I  can  see  the  vine- 
covered  porch,  and  Madame  Lamoreaux's  boarding- 
house  on  the  South  Side — 

"And  the  old  art  gallery?" 

"Why,  there  was  one,  wasn't  there?"  said  she, 
"somewhere  along  the  lake  front,  wasn't  it?.., 
Such  a  pleasant  meeting,  and  so  odd!  " 


The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again.    1 15 

I  sat  up  in  the  hammock,  and  stared  at  them  as 
they  went  on  their  promenade.  The  old  art  gallery, 
the  vine-covered  porch,  the  young  man  with  the 
smooth-shaven  dark  face  and  the  thrilling,  vibrant 
voice,  and  the  young,  young  girl  with  the  ruddy 
hair,  and  the  little,  round  form!  She  seemed  taller 
now,  and  there  was  more  of  maturity  in  the  figure; 
but  it  was  the  same  lissome  waist  and  petite  graceful 
ness  which  had  so  fully  explained  to  me  the  avid  eyes 
of  her  lover  on  that  day  when  I  had  fled  from  the 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Permanent  Organization. 
It  was  the  Empress  Josephine,  I  had  known  that — 
and  her  Sir  John! 

Then  I  thought  of  her  flying  from  him  into  the 
street,  and  the  little  bowed  head  on  the  street-car;  and 
the  old  pity  for  her,  the  old  bitterness  toward  him, 
returned  upon  me.  I  wondered  how  he  could  speak 
to  her  in  this  nonchalant  way;  what  they  were 
saying  to  each  other;  whether  they  would  ever  refer 
to  that  night  at  Auriccio's;  what  Alice  would  think 
of  him  if  she  ever  found  it  out;  whether  he  was  a 
villain,  or  only  erred  passionately;  what  was  actually 
said  in  that  palm  alcove  that  night  so  long  ago; 
whether  this  man,  with  the  eyes  and  voice  so  fasci 
nating  to  women,  would  renew  his  suit  in  this  new 
life  of  ours;  what  Jim  would  think  about  it;  and, 
more  than  all,  how  Josie  herself  would  regard 
him. 

"She  ought  never  to  have  spoken  to  him  again!  ' 
I  hear  some  one  say. 

Ah,  Madam,  very  true.  But  do  you  remember 
any  authentic  case  of  a  woman  who  failed  to  forgive 


1 1 6  The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again. 

the  man  whose  error  or  offense  had  for  its  excuse  the 
irresistible  attraction  of  her  own  charms? 

They  were  coming  back  now,  still  talking. 

"You  dropped  out  of  sight,  like  a  partridge  into  a 
thicket,"  said  he.  "Some  of  them  said  you  had 
gone  back  to — to — 

"To  the  farm,"  she  prompted. 

"Well,  yes,"  he  conceded;  "and  others  said  you 
had  left  Chicago  for  New  York;  and  some,  even 
Paris." 

"I  fail  to  see  the  warrant,"  said  Josie,  as  they 
approached  the  limit  of  earshot,  "for  any  of  the 
people  at  Madame  Lamoreux's  giving  themselves 
the  trouble  to  investigate." 

"So  far  as  that  is  concerned,"  said  he,  "I  should 
think  that  I —  "  and  his  voice  quite  lost  intelligi 
bility. 

My  cigar  had  gone  out,  and  the  cessation  of  the 
music  ought  to  have  apprised  me  of  the  breaking 
up  of  the  dance,  and  still  I  lay  looking  at  the  sky 
and  filled  with  my  thoughts. 

"Here  he  is,"  said  Alice,  "asleep  in  the  hammock! 
For  shame,  Albert!  This  would  not  have  occurred, 
once!" 

"I  am  free  to  admit  that,"  said  I,  "but  why  am  I 
now  disturbed?" 

"We're  going  on  a  cruise  in  the  gondola,"  said 
Antonia,  "and  Mr.  Elkins  says  you  are  lieutenant, 
and  we  can't  sail  without  you.  Come,  it's  perfectly 
beautiful  out  there." 

"We're  going  to  the  head  of  navigation  and 
back,"  said  Jim,  "and  then  our  revels  will  be  ended. 


The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again.    1 17 

—Hang  it!"  to  me,  "they  left  the    skull  and    cross- 
bones  off  all  the  flags!" 

Mr.  Barr-Smith  at  once  engaged  the  engineer  in 
conversation,  and  seemed  worming  from  him  all  his 
knowledge  of  the  construction  of  the  boat.  The  rest 
of  us  lounged  on  cushions  and  seats.  We  threaded 
our  way  up  the  new  pond,  winding  between  clumps  of 
trees,  now  in  broad  moonlight,  now  in  deepest  shade. 
The  shower  had  swept  over  to  the  northeast,  just 
one  dark  flounce  of  its  skirt  reaching  to  the  zenith. 
A  cool  breeze  suddenly  sprang  up  from  the  west, 
stirred  by  the  suction  of  the  receding  storm,  and  a 
roar  came  from  the  trees  on  the  hilltops. 

"Better  run  for  port,"  said  Jim;  "I'd  hate  to 
have  Mr.  Barr-Smith  suffer  shipwreck  where  the 
charts  don't  show  any  water!" 

As  we  ran  down  the  open  way,  the  remark  seemed 
less  and  less  of  a  joke.  The  gale  poured  over  the 
hills,  and  struck  the  boat  like  the  buffet  of  a  great 
hand.  She  heeled  over  alarmingly,  bumped  upon  a 
submerged  stump,  righted,  heeled  again,  this  time 
shipping  a  little  sea,  and  then  the  sharp  end  of  a 
hidden  oak-limb  thrust  up  through  the  bottom,  and 
ripped  its  way  out  again,  leaving  us  afloat  in  the 
deepest  part  of  the  lake,  with  a  spouting  fountain 
in  the  middle  of  the  vessel,  and  the  chopping  waves 
breaking  over  the  gunwale.  All  at  once,  I  noticed 
Cecil  Barr-Smith,  with  his  coat  off,  standing  near 
Antonia,  who  sat  as  cool  as  if  she  had  been  out  on 
some  quiet  road  driving  her  pacers.  The  boat 
sank  lower  in  the  water,  and  I  had  no  doubt  that  she 
was  sinking.  Antonia  rose,  and  stretched  her  hands 


Ii8   The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again. 

towards  Jim.  I  do  not  see  how  he  could  avoid  seeing 
this;  but  he  did,  and,  as  if  abandoning  her  to  her  fate, 
he  leaped  to  Josie's  side.  Cornish  had  seized  her 
by  the  arm,  and  seemed  about  to  devote  himself  to 
her  safety,  when  Jim,  without  a  word,  lifted  her  in 
his  arms,  and  leaped  lightly  upon  the  forward  deck, 
the  highest  and  driest  place  on  the  sinking  craft. 
Then,  as  everything  pointed  to  a  speedy  baptism  in 
the  lake  for  all  of  us,  we  saw  that  the  very  speed  of 
the  wind  had  saved  us,  and  felt  the  gondola  bump 
broadside  upon  the  dam.  Jim  sprang  to  the  abutment 
with  Josie,  and  Cecil  Barr-Smith  half  carried  and 
half  led  Antonia  to  the  shore.  Alice  and  I  sat  calmly 
on  the  windward  rail;  and  Barr-Smith,  laughing 
with  delight,  helped  us  across,  one  at  a  time,  to  the 
masonry. 

"I'm  glad  it  turned  out  no  worse,"  said  Jim. 
"I  hope  you  will  all  excuse  me  if  I  leave  you  now. 
I  must  see  Miss  Trescott  to  a  safe  and  dry  place. 
Here's  the  carriage,  Josie!" 

"Are  you  quite  uninjured?"  said  Cecil  to  Antonia, 
as  Mr.  Elkins  and  Josie  drove  away. 

"Oh,  quite  so!"  said  Antonia,  unwittingly  adopt 
ing  Barr-Smith's  phrase.  "But  for  a  moment  I 
was  awfully  frightened!  " 

"It  looked  a  little  damp,  at  one  time,  for  farce- 
comedy,"  said  Cornish.  "I  wonder  how  deep  it  was 
out  there!" 

"Miss  Trescott  was  quite  drenched,"  said  Mr. 
Barr-Smith,  as  we  got  into  the  carriages.  "Too 
bad,  by  Jove!" 


The  Empress  and  Sir  John  Again.    1 19 

"You  may  write  home,"  said  Antonia,  "an  account 
of  being  shipwrecked  in  the  top  of  a  tree!" 

"Good,  good!"  said  Cecil,  and  we  all  joined  in 
the  laugh,  until  we  were  suddenly  sobered  by  the 
fact  that  Antonia  had  bowed  her  head  on  Alice's  lap, 
and  was  sobbing  as  if  her  heart  was  broken. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

•ffn  wbtcb  tbe  ffiur&ens  of  "Cmealtb  JBegin  to  jfall 
upon  1H0. 

IF  the  town  be  considered  as  a  quiescent  body  pur 
suing  its  unluminous  way  in  space,  Mr.  Elkins  may 
stand  for  the  impinging  planet  which  shocked  it 
into  vibrant  life.  I  suggested  this  nebular-hypothesis 
simile  to  Mr.  Giddings,  one  day,  as  the  germ  of  an 
editorial. 

"It's  rather  seductive,"  said  he,  "but  it  won't  do. 
Carry  your  interplanetary  collision  business  to  its 
logical  end,  and  what  do  you  come  to?  Gaseousness. 
And  that's  just  what  the  Angus  Falls  Times,  the 
Fairchild  Star,  and  the  other  loathsome  sheets 
printed  in  prairie-dog  towns  around  here  accuse  us 
of,  now.  No ;  much  obliged ;  but  as  a  field  for  com 
parisons  the  tried  old  solar  system  is  good  enough 
for  the  Herald." 

I  couldn't  help  thinking,  however,  that  the  thing 
had  some  illustrative  merit.  There  was  Jim's  first 
impact,  felt  locally,  and  jarring  things  loose.  Then 
came  the  atomic  vivification,  the  heat  and  motion, 
which  appeared  in  the  developments  which  we  have 
seen  taking  form.  After  the  visit  of  the  Barr- 
Smiths,  and  the  immigration  of  Cornish,  the  new 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    121 

star  Lattimore  began  to  blaze  in  the  commercial 
firmament,  the  focus  of  innumerable  monetary  tele 
scopes,  pointed  from  the  observatories  of  counting- 
rooms,  banks,  and  offices,  far  and  wide. 

There  was  a  shifting  of  the  investment  and  specu 
lative  equilibrium,  and  things  began  coming  to  us 
spontaneously.  The  Angus  Falls  railway  extension 
was  won  only  by  strenuous  endeavor.  Captain  Tolli- 
ver's  interviews  with  General  Lattimore,  in  which 
he  was  so  ruthlessly  "turned  down,"  he  always 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  creative  agony,  marking  the 
origin  of  the  roundhouse  and  machine-shops,  and 
our  connection  with  the  great  Halliday  railway 
system  of  which  it  made  us  a  part.  The  street-car 
project  went  more  easily;  and,  during  the  autumn, 
the  geological  and  manufacturing  experts  sent  out 
to  report  on  the  cement -works  enterprise,  pro 
nounced  favorably,  and  gangs  of  men,  during  the 
winter,  were  to  be  seen  at  work  on  the  foundations 
of  the  great  buildings  by  the  scarped  chalk-hill. 

The  tension  of  my  mind  just  after  the  Lynhurst 
Park  affair  was  such  as  to  attune  it  to  no  impulses 
but  the  financial  vibrations  which  pulsated  through 
our  atmosphere.  True,  I  sometimes  felt  the  wonder 
return  upon  me  at  the  finding  of  the  lovers  of  the 
art-gallery  together  once  more,  in  Josie  and  Cornish; 
and  at  other  times  Antonia's  agitation  after  our 
escape  from  shipwreck  recurred  to  me  in  contrast  with 
her  smiling  self-possession  while  the  boat  was  drifting 
and  filling ;  but  mostly  I  thought  of  nothing,  dreamed 
of  nothing,  but  trust  companies,  additions,  bonds 
and  mortgages. 


122  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

Mr.  Barr  Smith  returned  to  London  soon,  giving 
a  parting  luncheon  in  his  rooms,  where  wine  flowed 
freely,  and  toasts  of  many  colors  were  pushed  into 
the  atmosphere.  There  was  one  to  the  President 
and  the  Queen,  proposed  by  the  host  and  drunk  in 
bumpers,  and  others  to  Mr.  Barr-Smith,  his  brother, 
and  the  members  of  the  "Syndicate."  The  enthu 
siasm  grew  steadily  in  intensity  as  the  affair  pro 
gressed.  Finally  Mr.  Cecil  solemnly  proposed  "The 
American  Woman."  In  offering  this  toast,  he 
said,  he  was  taking  long  odds,  as  it  was  a  sport  for 
which  he  hadn't  had  the  least  training;  but  he 
couldn't  forego  the  pleasure  of  paying  a  tribute 
where  tribute  was  due.  The  ladies  of  America 
needed  no  encomiums  from  him,  and  yet  he  was 
sure  that  he  should  give  no  offense  by  saying  that 
they  were  of  a  type  unknown  in  history.  They 
were  up  to  anything,  you  know,  in  the  way  of  intel 
lectuality,  and  he  was  sure  that  in  a  certain  queenly, 
blonde  way  they  were — 

"Hear,  hear!"  said  his  brother,  and  burst  into  a 
laugh  in  which  we  all  joined,  while  Cecil  went  on 
talking,  in  an  uproar  which  drowned  his  words, 
though  one  could  see  that  he  was  trying  to  explain 
something,  and  growing  very  hot  in  the  process. 

Pearson  announced  that  their  train  would  soon 
arrive,  and  we  all  went  down  to  see  them  off.  Barr- 
Smith  assured  us  at  parting  that  the  tram-road 
transaction  might  be  considered  settled.  He  be 
lieved,  too,  that  his  clients  might  come  into  the 
cement  project.  We  were  all  the  more  hopeful  of 
this,  for  the  knowledge  that  he  carried  somewhere 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    123 

in  his  luggage  a  bond  for  a  deed  to  a  considerable 
interest  in  the  cement  lands.  Things  were  coming 
on  beautifully;  and  it  seemed  as  if  Elkins  and 
Cornish,  working  together,  were  invincible. 

We  still  lived  at  the  hotel,  but  our  architect, 
"little  Ed.  Smith,  who  lived  over  on  the  Hayes 
place"  when  we  were  boys,  and  who  was  once  at 
Garden  City  with  Jim,  was  busy  with  plans  for  a 
mansion  which  we  were  to  build  in  the  new  Lynhurst 
Park  Addition  the  next  spring.  Mr.  Elkins  was 
preparing  to  erect  a  splendid  house  in  the  same 
neighborhood. 

"Can  I  afford  it?"  said  I,  in  discussing  estimates. 
"Afford  it!"  he  replied,  turning  on  me  in  astonish 
ment.  "My  dear  boy,  don't  you  see  we  are  up 
against  a  situation  that  calls  on  us  to  bluff  to  the 
limit  or  lay  down?  In  such  a  case,  luxury  becomes 
a  duty,  and  lavishness  the  truest  economy.  Not 
to  spend  is  to  go  broke.  Lay  your  Poor  Richard 
on  the  shelf,  and  put  a  weight  on  him.  Stimulate 
the  outgo,  and  the  income'll  take  care  of  itself.  A 
thousand  spent  is  five  figures  to  the  good.  No, 
while  we've  as  many  boom-irons  in  the  fire  as  we're 
heating  now,  to  be  modest  is  to  be  lost." 

"Perhaps,"  said  I,  "you  may  be  right,  and  no 
doubt  are.  We'll  talk  it  over  again  some  time. 
And  your  remark  about  irons  in  the  fire  brings  up 
another  matter  which  bothers,  me.  It's  something 
unusual  when  we  don't  open  up  a  set  of  books  for 
some  new  corporation,  during  the  working  day. 
Aren't  we  getting  too  many?" 

"Do  you  remember  Mule  Jones,  who  lived  down 


1 24  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

near  Hickory  Grove?"  said  he,  after  a  long  pause. 
"Well,  you  know,  in  our  old  neighborhood,  the  mule 
was  regarded  with  a  mixture  of  contempt,  suspicion, 
and  fear,  the  folks  not  understanding  him  very 
well,  and  being  especially  uninformed  as  to  his 
merits.  Therefore,  Mule  Jones,  who  dealt  in  mules, 
bought,  sold,  and  broke  'em,  was  a  man  of  mark,  and 
identified  in  name  with  his  trade,  as  most  people 
used  to  be  before  our  time.  I  was  down  there  one 
Sunday,  and  asked  him  how  he  managed  to  break 
the  brutes.  'It's  easy,'  said  he,  'when  you  know 
how.  I  never  hook  up  less'n  six  of  'em  at  a  time. 
Then  they  sort  o'  neutralize  one  another.  Some 
on  'em'll  be  r'arin'  an'  pitchin',  an'  some  tryin'  to 
run;  but  they'll  be  enough  of  'em  down  an'  a-draggin' 
all  the  time,  to  keep  the  enthusiastic  ones  kind  o' 
suppressed,  and  give  me  the  castin'  vote.  It's  the 
only  right  way  to  git  the  bulge  on  mules.'  When 
ever  you  get  to  worrying  about  our  various  com 
panies,  think  of  the  Mule  Jones  system  and  be 
calm." 

"I'm  a  little  shy  of  being  ruled  by  one  case,  even 
though  so  exactly  in  point,"  said  I. 

"Well,  it's  all  right,"  he  continued,  "and  about 
these  houses.  Why,  we'd  have  to  build  them,  even 
if  we  preferred  to  live  in  tents.  Put  the  cost  in  the 
advertising  account  of  Lynhurst  Park  Addition,  if 
it  worries  you.  Let  me  ask  you,  now,  as  a  reasonable 
man,  how  can  we  expect  the  rest  of  the  world  to  come 
out  here  and  spring  themselves  for  humble  dwell 
ings  with  stationary  washtubs,  conservatories,  and 
porte  cochbres,  if  we  ourselves  haven't  any  more 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    125 

confidence  in  the  deal  than  to  put  up  Jim  Crow  wicki 
ups  costing  not  more  than  ten  or  fifteeen  thousand 
dollars  apiece  ?  That  addition  has  got  to  be  the  Nob 
Hill  of  Lattimore.  Nothing  in  the  '  poor  but  honest ' 
line  will  do  for  Lynhurst;  and  we've  got  to  set  the 
pace.  When  you  see  my  modest  bachelor  quarters 
going  up,  you'll  cease  to  think  of  yours  in  the  light  of 
an  extravagance.  By  next  fall  you'll  be  infested 
with  money,  anyhow,  and  that  house  will  be  the 
least  of  your  troubles." 

Alice  and  I  made  up  our  minds  that  Jim  was  right, 
and  went  on  with  our  plans  on  a  scale  which  some 
times  brought  back  the  Aladdin  idea  to  my  mind, 
accustomed  as  I  was  to  rural  simplicity.  But 
Alice,  notwithstanding  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
a  country  physician  of  not  very  lucrative  practice, 
rose  to  the  occasion,  and  spent  money  with  a  spon 
taneous  largeness  of  execution  which  revealed  a 
genius  hitherto  unsuspected  by  either  of  us.  Jim 
was  thoroughly  delighted  with  it. 

"The  Republic,"  he  argued,  "cannot  be  in  any 
real  danger  when  the  modest  middle  classes  produce 
characters  of  such  strength  in  meeting  great  emer 
gencies!" 

Jim  was  at  his  best  this  summer.  He  revelled  in 
the  work  of  filling  the  morning  paper  with  scare-heads 
detailing  our  operations.  He  enjoyed  being  It,  he 
said.  Cornish,  after  the  first  few  days,  during  which, 
in  spite  of  inside  information  as  to  his  history,  I  felt 
that  he  would  make  good  the  predictions  of  the 
Herald,  ceased  to  be,  in  my  mind,  anything  more 
than  I  was — a  trusted  aide  of  Jim,  the  general. 


I  26  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

Both  men  went  rather  frequently  out  to  the  Trescott 
farm — Jim  with  the  bluff  freedom  of  a  brother, 
Cornish  with  his  rather  ceremonious  deference.  I 
distrusted  the  dark  Sir  John  where  women  were 
concerned,  noting  how  they  seemed  charmed  by 
him;  but  I  could  not  see  that  he  had  made  any 
headway  in  regaining  Josie's  regard,  though  I  had  a 
lurking  feeling  that  he  meant  to  do  so.  I  saw  at 
times  in  his  eyes  the  old  look  which  I  remembered 
so  well. 

Josie,  more  than  ever  this  season,  was  earning  her 
father's  commendation  as  his  "right-hand  man." 
She  insisted  on  driving  the  four  horses  which  drew 
the  binder  in  the  harvest.  In  the  haying  she  oper 
ated  the  horse-rake,  and  helped  man  the  hay-fork  in 
filling  the  barns.  She  grew  as  tanned  as  if  she  had 
spent  the  time  at  the  seashore  or  on  the  links; 
and  with  every  month  she  added  to  her  charm. 
The  scarlet  of  her  lips,  the  ruddy  luxuriance  of  her 
hair,  the  arrowy  straightness  of  her  carriage,  the 
pulsing  health  which  beamed  from  her  eye,  and 
dyed  cheek  and  neck,  made  their  appeal  to  the 
women,  even. 

"How  sweet  she  is!"  said  Alice,  as  she  came  to 
greet  us  one  day  when  we  drove  to  the  farm,  and 
waited  for  her  to  come  to  us.  "How  sweet  she  is, 
Albert!" 

Her  father  came  up,  and  explained  to  us  that  he 
didn't  ask  any  of  his  women  folks  to  do  any  work 
except  what  there  was  in  the  house.  He  was  able 
to  hire  the  outdoors  work  done,  but  Josie  he  couldn't 
keep  out  of  the  fields. 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    i  27 

"Why,  pa,"  said  she,  "don't  you  see  you  would 
spoil  my  chances  of  marrying  a  fairy  prince?  They 
absolutely  never  come  into  the  house ;  and  my  straw 
hat  is  the  only  really  becoming  thing  I've  got  to 
wear!" 

"Don't  give  a  dum  if  yeh  never  marry,"  said  Bill. 
"Hain't  seen  the  man  yit  that  was  good  enough  fer 
yeh,  from  my  standpoint." 

Bill's  reputation  was  pretty  well  known  to  me  by 
this  time.  He  had  been  for  years  a  successful 
breeder  and  shipper  of  live-stock,  in  which  vocation  he 
had  become  well-to-do.  On  his  farm  he  was  forceful 
and  efficient,  treading  his  fields  like  an  admiral  his 
quarter-deck.  About  town  he  was  given  to  talking 
horses  and  cattle  with  the  groups  which  frequented 
the  stables  and  blacksmith-shops,  and  sometimes 
grew  a  little  noisy  and  boisterous  with  them.  When 
ever  her  father  went  with  a  shipment  of  cattle  to 
Chicago  or  other  market,  Josie  went  too,  taking  a 
regular  passenger  train  in  time  to  be  waiting  when 
Bill's  stock  train  arrived;  and  after  the  beeves  were 
disposed  of,  Bill  became  her  escort  to  opera  and  art- 
gallery;  on  such  a  visit  I  had  seen  her  at  the  Stock 
Yards.  She  was  fond  of  her  father;  but  this  alone 
did  not  explain  her  constant  attendance  upon  him. 
I  soon  came  to  understand  that  his  prompt  return 
from  the  city,  in  good  condition,  was  apt  to  be 
dependent  upon  her  influence.  It  was  one  of  those 
cases  of  weakness,  associated  with  strength,  the  real 
mystery  of  which  does  not  often  occur  to  us  because 
they  are  so  common. 

He  came  into  our  office  one    day  with  a  tremor 


128   The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

in  his  hand  and  a  hunted  look  in  his  eye.  He  took 
a  chair  at  my  invitation,  but  rose  at  once,  went  to 
the  door,  and  looked  up  and  down  the  street,  as  if 
for  pursuers.  I  saw  Captain  Tolliver  across  the 
street,  and  Bill's  air  of  excitement  was  explained. 
I  was  relieved,  for  at  first  I  had  thought  him  intoxi 
cated. 

"What's  the  matter,  Bill?"  said  I,  after  he  had 
looked  at  me  earnestly,  almost  pantingly,  for  a  few 
moments.  "You  look  nervous." 

"They're  after  me,"  he  answered  in  repressed 
tones,  "to  sell;  and  I'll  be  blasted  if  I  know  what  to 
do!  Wha'  d'ye'  'spose  they're  offerin'  me  for  my 
land?" 

"The  fact  is,  Bill,"  said  I,  "that  I  know  all  about 
it.  I'm  interested  in  the  deal,  somewhat." 

"Then  you  know  they've  bid  right  around  a 
thousand  dollars  an  acre?" 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "or  at  least  that  they  intended  to 
offer  that." 

"An'  you're  one  o'  the  company,"  he  queried, 
"  that's  doin'  it?" 

"Yes,"  I  admitted. 

"Wai,"  said  he,  "I'm  kinder  sorry  you're  in  it, 
becuz  I've  about  concluded  to  sell;  an'  it  seems  to 
me  that  any  concern  that  buys  at  that  figger  is 
a-goin'  to  bust,  sure.  W'y,  I  bought  that  land  fer 
two  dollars  and  a  haff  an  acre.  But,  see  here,  now; 
I  'xpect  you  know  your  business,  an'  see  some  way  of 
gittin'  out  in  the  deal,  'r  you  wouldn't  pay  that.  But 
if  I  sell,  I've  got  to  have  help  with  my  folks." 

"Ah,"  said  I,  scenting  the  usual  obstacle  in  such 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    i  29 

cases,  "Mrs.  Trescott  a  little  unwilling  to  sign  the 
deeds?" 

"No,"  answered  he,  "strange  as  it  may  seem,  ma's 
kinder  stuck  on  comin'  to  town  to  live.  How  she'll 
feel  after  she's  tried  it  fer  a  month  'r  so,  with  no 
chickens  'r  turkeys  'r  milk  to  look  after,  I'm  dubious; 
but  jest  now  she  seems  to  be  all  right." 

"Well,  what's  the  matter  then?"  said  I. 

"Wai,  it's  Josie,  to  tell  the  truth,"  said  he.  "She's 
sort  o'  hangin'  back.  An'  it's  for  her  sake  that  I 
want  to  make  the  deal!  I've  told  her  an'  told  her 
that  there's  no  dum  sense  in  raisin'  corn  on  thou 
sand-dollar  land;  but  it's  no  use,  so  fur;  an'  here's 
the  only  chanst  I'll  ever  hev,  mebbe,  a-slippin'  by. 
She  ortn't  to  live  her  life  out  on  a  farm,  educated  as 
she  is.  W'y,  did  you  ever  hear  how  she's  been 
educated?" 

I  told  him  that  in  a  general  way  I  knew,  but  not 
in  detail. 

"W'l,  I  want  yeh  to  know  all  about  it,  so's  yeh 
c'n  see  this  movin'  business  as  it  is,"  said  he.  "You 
know  I  was  allus  a  rough  cuss.  Herded  cattle  over 
there  by  yer  father's  south  place,  an'  never  went 
to  school.  Ma,  Josie's  ma,  y'  know,  kep'  the  Green 
wood  school,  an'  crossed  the  prairie  there  where  I 
was  a-herdin',  an'  I  used  to  look  at  her  mighty  longin' 
as  she  went  by,  when  the  cattle  happened  to  be  clost 
along  the  track,  which  they  right  often  done.  You 
know  how  them  things  go.  An'  fin'ly  one  morning 
a  blue  racer  chased  her,  as  the  little  whelps  will,  an' 
got  his  dummed  little  teeth  fastened  in  her  dress,  an' 
she  a-hyperin'  around  haff  crazy,  and  a-screamin' 


130  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

every  jump,  so's't  I  hed  to  just  grab  her,  an'  hold 
her  till  I  could  get  the  blasted  snake  off, — harmless, 
y'  know,  but  got  hooked  teeth,  an'  not  a  lick  o' 
sense, — an'  he  kinder  quirled  around  my  arm,  an'  I 
nacherally  tore  him  to  ribbins  a-gittin'  of  him  off. 
An'  then  she  sort  o'  dropped  off,  an'  when  she  come 
to,  I  was  a-rubbin'  her  hands  an'  temples.  Wa'n't 
that  a  funny  interduction  ? " 

"It's  very  interesting,"  said  I;  "go  on." 

"Wl  you  remember  ol'  Doc  Maxfield?"  said  Bill, 
well  started  on  a  reminiscence.  "Wai,  he  come 
along,  an'  said  it  was  the  worst  case  of  collapse, 
whatever  that  means,  that  he  ever  see — her  lips 
an'  hands  an'  chin  all  a-tremblin',  an'  flighty  as  a 
loon.  Wai,  after  that  I  used  to  take  her  around 
some,  an'  her  folks  objected  becuz  I  was  ignorant, 
an'  she  learnt  me  some  things,  an'  bein'  strong  an'  a 
good  dancer  an'  purty  good-lookin'  she  kind  o' 
forgot  about  my  failin's,  an'  we  was  married.  Her 
folks  said  she'd  throwed  herself  away;  but  I  could 
buy  an'  sell  the  hull  set  of  'em  now!" 

This  seemed  conclusive  as  to  the  merits  of  the  case, 
and  I  told  him  as  much. 

"W'l  Josie  was  born  an'  growed  up,"  continued 
Bill,  "an"  it's  her  I  started  to  tell  about,  wa'n't  it? 
She  was  allus  a  cute  little  thing,  an'  early  she  got 
this  art  business  in  her  head.  She'd  read  about 
fellers  that  had  got  to  be  great  by  paintin'  an'  carvin', 
an'  it  made  her  wild  to  do  the  same  thing.  Wa'n't 
there  a  feller  that  pulled  hair  outer  the  cat  to  paint 
Injuns  with?  Yes,  I  thought  they  was;  I  allus 
thought  they  could  paint  theirselves  good  enough; 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    i  3 1 

but  that  story  an'  some  others  she  read  an'  read 
when  she  was  a  little  gal,  an'  she  was  allus  a-paintin' 
an'  makin'  things  with  clay.  She  took  a  prize  at 
the  county  fair  when  she  was  fourteen,  with  a  picter 
of  Washin'ton  crossin'  the  Delaware — three  dol 
lars,  by  gum!  An'  then  we  hed  to  give  her  lessons; 
an'  they  wasn't  any  one  thet  knew  anything  around 
here,  she  said,  an'  she  went  to  Chicago.  An'  I  went 
in  to  visit  her  when  she  hedn't  ben  there  more'n 
six  weeks,  on  an  excursion  one  convention  time, 
an'  I  found  her  all  tore  up,  a  good  deal  as  her  ma 
was  with  the  blue  racer, — I  don't  think  she's  ever 
ben  the  same  light-hearted  little  gal  sence, — an' 
from  there  I  took  her  to  New  York;  an'  there  she 
fell  in  with  a  nice  woman  that  was  awful  good  to  her, 
an'  they  went  to  Europe,  an'  it  cost  a  heap.  An' 
you  may've  noticed  thet  Josie  knows  a  pile  more'n 
the  other  women  here  ? ' ' 

I  admitted  that  this  had  occurred  to  me. 

"W'l,  she  was  allus  apt  to  take  her  head  with 
her,"  said  Bill,  "but  this  travelin'  has  fixed  her  like  a 
hoss  thet's  ben  druv  in  Chicago:  nothin'  feazes  her, 
street-cars,  brass  bands,  circuses,  overhead  trains — 
it's  all  the  same  to  her,  she's  seen  'em  all.  Some 
times  I  git  the  notion  that  she'd  enjoy  things  more 
if  she  hadn't  seen  so  dum  many  of  'em  an'  so  much 
better  ones,  y'  know!  Wai,  after  she'd  ben  over 
there  a  long  time,  she  wrote  she  was  a-comin'  home; 
an'  we  was  tickled  to  death.  Only  I  was  surprised 
by  her  writin'  that  she  wanted  us  to  take  all  them  old 
picters  of  hern,  and  put  'em  out  of  sight!  An'  if 
you'll  b'lieve  it,  she  won't  talk  picters  nor  make  any 


132   The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

sence  she  got  back — only,  jest  after  she  got  back, 
she  said  she  didn't  see  any  use  o'  her  goin'  on  dobbin' 
good  canvas  up  with  good  paint,  an'  making'  nothin' 
but  poor  picters;  an'  she  cried  some  ...  I  thought  it 
was  sing'lar  that  this  art  business  that  she  thought 
was  the  only  thing  thet'd  ever  make  her  happy 
was  the  only  thing  I  ever  see  her  cry  about." 

"It's  the  way,"  said  I,  "with  a  great  many  of  our 
cherished  hopes." 

"Wl,  anyhow,  you  can  see  thet  it's  the  wrong 
thing  to  put  as  much  time  an'  money  into  fixin'  a 
child  up  f'r  a  different  kind  o'  life  as  we  hev,  an' 
then  keep  her  on  a  farm  out  here.  An'  thet's  why 
I  want  you  to  help  this  sale  through,  an'  bring  influ 
ence  to  bear  on  her.  I  give  up;  I'm  all  in." 

To  me  Bill  seemed  entirely  in  the  right.  The  new 
era  made  it  absurd  for  the  Trescotts  to  use  their 
land  longer  as  a  farm.  Lattimore  was  changing 
daily.  The  streets  were  gashed  with  trenches  for 
gas-  and  water-mains ;  piled-up  materials  for  curbing, 
paving,  office  buildings,  new  hotels,  and  all  sorts  of 
erections  made  locomotion  a  peril;  but  we  were 
happy. 

The  water  company  was  organized  in  our  office,  the 
gas  and  electric-light  company  in  Cornish's;  but 
every  spout  led  into  the  same  bin. 

Mr.  Hinckley  had  induced  some  country  dealers 
who*  owned  a  line  of  local  grain-houses  to  remove  to 
Lattimore  and  put  up  a  huge  terminal  elevator 
for  the  handling  of  their  trade.  Captain  Tolliver 
had  been  for  a  long  time  working  upon  a  project 
for  developing  a  great  water-power,  by  tunneling 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    133 

across  a  bend  in  the  river,  and  utilizing  the  fall.  The 
building  of  the  elevator  attracted  the  attention  of 
a  company  of  Rochester  millers,  and  almost  before 
we  knew  it  their  forces  had  been  added  to  ours, 
and  the  tunnel  was  begun,  with  the  certainty  that  a 
two-thousand-barrel  mill  would  be  ready  to  grind 
the  wheat  from  the  elevator  as  soon  as  the  flume  be 
gan  carrying  water.  This  tunnel  cut  through  an 
isthmus  between  the  Brushy  Creek  valley  and  the 
river,  and  brought  to  bear  on  our  turbines  the  head 
from  a  ten-mile  loop  of  shoals  and  riffles.  It  opened 
into  the  gorge  near  the  southern  edge  of  Lynhurst 
Park,  and  crossed  the  Trescott  farm.  So  it  was 
that  Bill  awoke  one  day  to  the  fact  that  his  farm 
was  coveted  by  divers  people,  who  saw  in  his  fields 
and  feed-yards  desirable  sites  for  railway  tracks, 
mills,  factories,  and  the  cottages  of  a  manufacturing 
suburb.  This  it  was  that  had  put  the  Captain, 
like  a  blood-hound,  on  his  trial,  to  the  end  that  he  was 
run  to  earth  in  my  office,  and  made  his  appeal  for 
help  in  managing  Josie. 

"There  she  comes  now,"  said  he.  "Labor  with 
her,  won't  yeh?" 

"Bring  her  with  us  to  the  hotel,"  said  I,  "to  take 
dinner.  If  my  wife  and  Elkins  can't  fix  the  thing, 
no  one  can." 

So  we  five  dined  together,  and  after  dinner  dis 
cussed  the  Trescott  crisis.  Bill  put  the  case,  with 
all  a  veteran  dealer's  logic,  in  its  financial  aspects. 

"But  we  don't  want  to  be  rich,"  said  Josie. 

"What've  we  ben  actin'  all  these  years  like  we 
have  for,  then?"  inquired  Bill.  "Seem's  if  I'd 


134  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

been  lab'rin'  under  a  mistake  f'r  some  time  past. 
When  your  ma  an'  me  was  a-roughin'  it  out  there  in 
the  old  log-house,  an'  she  a-lookin'  out  at  the  Feb'uary 
stars  through  the  holes  in  the  roof,  a-holdin'  you,  a 
little  baby  in  bed,  we  reckoned  we  was  a-doin'  of 
it  to  sort  o'  better  ourselves  in  a  property  way. 
Wouldn't  you  'a' thought  so,  Jim?" 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Elkins,  with  an  air  of  judicial 
perpension,  "if  you  had  asked  me  about  it,  I  should 
have  said  that,  if  you  wanted  to  stay  poor,  you  could 
have  held  your  own  better  by  staying  in  Pleasant 
Valley  Township  as  a  renter.  This  was  no  place 
to  come  to  if  you  wanted  to  conserve  your  poverty." 

"But,  pa,  we're  not  adapted  to  town  life  and 
towns,"  urged  Josie.  "I'm  not,  and  you  are  not, 
and  as  for  mamma,  she'll  never  be  contented.  Oh, 
Mr.  Elkins,  why  did  you  come  out  here,  making  us 
all  fortunes  which  we  haven't  earned,  and  upsetting 
everything?  " 

"Now,  don't  blame  me,  Josie,"  Jim  protested. 
"You  ought  to  consider  the  fallacy  of  the  post  hoc, 
propter  hoc  argument.  But  to  return  to  the  point 
under  discussion.  If  you  could  stay  there,  a  rural 
Amaryllis,  sporting  in  Arcadian  shades,  having  seen 
you  doing  it  once  or  twice,  I  couldn't  argue  against 
it,  it's  so  charmingly  becoming." 

"If  that  were  all  the  argument —  "  began  Josie. 

"It's  the  most  important  one — to  my  mind," 
said  Jim,  resuming  the  discussion,  "and  you  fail 
on  that  point;  for  you  can't  live  in  that  way  long. 
If  you  don't  sell,  the  Development  Company  will 
condemn  grounds  for  railway  tracks  and  switch- 


The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us.    135 

yards;  you'll  find  your  fields  and  meadows  all  shot 
to  pieces;  and  your  house  will  be  surrounded  by 
warehouses,  elevators,  and  factories.  Your  larks  and 
bobolinks  will  be  scared  off  by  engines  and  smoke 
stacks,  and  your  flowers  spoiled  with  soot.  Don't 
parley  with  fate,  but  cash  in  and  put  your  winnings 
in  some  safe  investment." 

"Once  I  thought  I  couldn't  stay  on  the  old  farm 
a  day  longer;  but  I  feel  otherwise  now!  What  busi 
ness  has  this  'progress'  of  yours  to  interfere?" 

"It  pushes  you  out  of  the  nest,"  answered  Jim.  "It 
gives  you  the  chance  of  your  lives.  You  can  come 
out  into  Lynhurst  Park  Addition,  and  build  your 
house  near  the  Barslow  and  Elkins  dwellings.  We've 
got  about  everything  there — city  water,  gas,  electric 
light,  sewers,  steam  heat  from  the  traction  plant, 
beautiful  view,  lots  on  an  established  grade — 

"Don't,  don't!"  said  Josie.  "It  sounds  like  the 
advertisements  in  the  Herald." 

"Well,  I  was  just  leading  up  to  a  statement  of 
what  we  lack,"  continued  Jim.  "It's  the  artistic 
atmosphere.  We  need  a  dash  of  the  culture  of 
Paris  and  Dresden  and  the  place  where  they  have 
the  dinky  little  windmills  which  look  so  nice  on 
cream-pitchers,  but  wouldn't  do  for  one  of  our 
farmers  a  minute.  Come  out  and  supply  our  lack. 
You  owe  it  to  the  great  cause  of  the  amelioration  of 
local  savagery;  and  in  view  of  my  declaration  of 
discipleship,  and  the  effective  way  in  which  I  have 
always  upheld  the  standard  of  our  barbarism,  I 
claim  that  you  owe  it  to  me." 

"I've  abandoned  the  brush." 


136  The  Burdens  of  Wealth  Fall  upon  Us. 

"Take  it  up  again." 

"I  have  made  a  vow." 

"Break  it!  " 

She  refused  to  yield,  but  was  clearly  yielding. 
Alice  and  I  showed  Trescott,  on  a  plat,  the  place  for 
his  new  home.  He  was  quite  taken  with  the  idea,  and 
said  that  ma  would  certainly  be  tickled  with  it. 

Josie  sat  apart  with  Mr.  Elkins,  in  earnest  con 
verse,  for  a  long  time.  She  looked  frequently  at 
her  father,  Jim  constantly  at  her.  Mr.  Cornish 
dropped  in  for  a  little  while,  and  joined  us  in  present 
ing  the  case  for  removal.  While  he  was  there  the 
girl  seemed  constrained,  and  not  quite  so  fully  at  her 
ease;  and  I  could  detect,  I  thought,  the  old  tendency 
to  scrutinize  his  face  furtively.  When  he  went 
away,  she  turned  to  Jim  more  intimately  than 
before,  and  almost  promised  that  she  would  become 
his  neighbor  in  Lynhurst.  After  the  Trescotts' 
carriage  had  come  and  taken  them  away,  Jim  told 
us  that  it  was  for  her  father,  and  the  temptations  of 
idleness  in  the  town,  that  Miss  Trescott  feared. 

"This  fairy-godmother  business,"  said  he,  "ain't 
what  the  prospectus  might  lead  one  to  expect.  It 
h'as  its  drawbacks.  Bill  is  going  to  cash  in  all  right, 
and  I  think  it's  for  the  best;  but,  Al,  we've  got  to 
take  care  of  the  old  man,  and  see  that  he  doesn't  go 
up  in  the  air." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

a  Sitting  or  Gwo  in  tbe  <5ame  witb  tbe  THflorlZ)  an& 
Destiny. 

OUR  game  at  Lattimore  was  one  of  those  absorb 
ing  ones  in  which  the  sunlight  of  next  morning 
sifts  through  the  blinds  before  the  players  are  aware 
that  midnight  is  past.  Day  by  day,  deal  by  deal,  it 
went  on,  card  followed  card  in  fateful  fall  upon  the 
table,  and  we  who  sat  in,  and  played  the  World 
and  Destiny  with  so  pitifully  small  a  pile  of  chips  at 
the  outset,  saw  the  World  and  Destiny  losing  to  us, 
until  our  hands  could  scarcely  hold,  our  eyes  hardly 
estimate,  the  high-piled  stacks  of  counters  which 
were  ours. 

We  saw  the  yellowing  groves  and  brown  fields  of 
our  first  autumn ;  we  heard  the  long-drawn,  wavering, 
mounting,  falling,  persistent  howl  of  the  thresher 
among  the  settings  of  hive-shaped  stacks;  we  saw 
the  loads  of  red  and  yellow  corn  at  the  corn-cribs, — 
as  men  at  the  board  of  the  green  cloth  hear  the 
striking  of  the  hours.  And  we  heeded  them  as  little. 
The  cries  of  southing  wild-fowl  heralded  the  snow; 
winter  came  for  an  hour  or  so,  and  melted  into 
spring;  and  some  of  us  looked  up  from  our  hands 
for  a  moment,  to  note  the  fact  that  it  was  the  anni- 

13? 


138     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

versary  of  that  aguish  day  when  three  of  us  had 
first  taken  our  seats  at  the  table:  and  before  we 
knew  it,  the  dust  and  heat  and  summer  clouds,  like 
that  which  lightened  over  the  fete  in  the  park, 
admonished  us  that  we  were  far  into  our  second  year. 
And  still  shuffle,  cut,  deal,  trick,  and  hand  followed 
each  other,  and  with  draw  and  bluff  and  showdown 
we  played  the  World  and  Destiny,  and  playing 
won,  and  saw  our  stacks  of  chips  grow  higher  and 
higher,  as  our  great  and  absorbing  game  went  on. 

Moreover,  while  we  won  and  won,  nobody  seemed 
to  lose.  Josie  spoke  that  night  of  fortunes  which 
people  had  not  earned;  but  surely  they  were  cre 
ated  somehow;  and  as  the  universe,  when  the 
divine  fiat  had  formed  the  world,  was  richer,  rather 
than  poorer,  so,  we  felt,  must  these  values  so  magi 
cally  growing  into  our  fortunes  be  good,  rather 
than  evil,  and  honestly  ours,  so  far  as  we  might  be 
able  to  secure  them  to  ourselves.  I  said  as  much  to 
Jim  one  day,  at  which  he  smiled,  and  remarked 
that  if  we  got  to  monkeying  with  the  ethics  of  the 
trade,  piracy  would  soon  be  a  ruined  business. 

"Better,  far  better  keep  the  lookout  sweeping  the 
horizon  for  sails,"  said  he,  "and  when  one  appears, 
serve  out  the  rum  and  gunpowder  to  the  crew,  and 
stand  by  to  lower  away  the  boats  for  a  boarding- 
party  ! ' ' 

I  am  afraid  I  have  given  the  impression  that  our 
life  at  this  time  was  solely  given  over  to  cupidity 
and  sordidness;  and  that  idea  I  may  not  be  able  to 
remove.  Yet  I  must  try  to  do  so.  We  were  in 
the  game  to  win;  but  our  winnings,  present  and 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     139 

prospective,  were  not  in  wealth  only.  To  sur 
mount  obstacles;  to  drive  difficulties  before  us  like 
scattering  sparrows;  to  see  a  town  marching  before 
us  into  cityhood;  to  feel  ourselves  the  forces  work 
ing  through  human  masses  so  mightily  that,  for 
hundreds  of  miles  about  us,  social  and  industrial 
factors  were  compelled  to  readjust  themselves  with 
reference  to  us;  to  be  masters;  to  create — all  these 
things  went  into  our  beings  in  thrilling  and  dizzying 
pulsations  of  a  pleasure  which  was  not  ignoble. 

For  instance,  let  us  take  the  building  of  the  Latti- 
more  &  Great  Western  Railway.  Before  Mr.  Elkins 
went  to  Lattimore  this  line  had  been  surveyed  by 
the  cooperation  of  Mr.  Hinckley,  Mr.  Ballard,  the 
president  of  the  opposition  bank,  and  some  others. 
It  was  felt  that  there  was  little  real  competition 
among  the  railways  centering  there,  and  the  L.  &  G.  W. 
was  designed  as  a  hint  to  them  of  a  Lattimore-built 
connection  with  the  Halliday  system,  then  a  free 
lance  in  the  transportation  field,  and  ready  to  make 
rates  in  an  independent  and  competitive  way. 
The  Angus  Falls  extension  brought  this  system  in, 
but  too  late  to  do  the  good  expected;  for  Mr.  Halli 
day,  in  his  dealings  with  us,  convinced  us  of  the 
truth  of  the  rumors  that  he  had  brought  the  other 
roads  to  terms,  and  was  a  free-lance  no  longer. 
Month  by  month  the  need  of  real  competition  in 
our  carrying  trade  grew  upon  us.  Rates  accorded 
to  other  cities  on  our  commercial  fighting  line  we 
could  not  get,  in  spite  of  the  most  persistent  efforts. 
In  the  offices  of  presidents  and  general  managers,  in 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  Kansas 


140     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

City,  Omaha  and  New  York  we  were  received  by 
suave  princes  of  the  highways,  who  each  blandly 
assured  us  that  his  road  looked  with  especial  favor 
upon  our  town,  and  that  our  representations  should 
receive  the  most  solicitous  attention.  But  the  word 
of  promise  was  ever  broken  to  the  hope. 

After  one  of  these  embassies  the  syndicate  held 
a  meeting  in  Cornish's  elegant  offices  on  the  ground- 
floor  of  the  new  "Hotel  Elkins"  building.  We  sent 
Giddings  away  to  prepare  an  optimistic  news-story 
for  to-morrow's  Herald,  and  an  editorial  leader  based 
upon  it,  both  of  which  had  been  formulated  among 
us  before  going  into  executive  session  on  the  state  of 
the  nation.  Hinckley,  who  had  an  admirable  power 
of  seeing  the  crux  of  a  situation,  was  making  a 
rather  grave  prognosis  for  us. 

"If  we  can't  get  rates  which  will  let  us  into  a 
broader  territory,  we  may  as  well  prepare  for  re 
verses,"  said  he.  "Foreign  cement  comes  almost  to 
our  doors,  in  competition  with  ours.  Wheat  and 
live-stock  go  from  within  twenty  miles  to  points 
five  hundred  miles  away.  Who  is  furnishing  the 
brick  and  stone  for  the  new  Fairchild  court-house 
and  the  big  normal-school  buildings  at  Angus  Falls? 
Not  our  quarries  and  kilns,  but  others  five  times  as 
far  away.  If  you  want  to  figure  out  the  reason  of 
this,  you  will  find  it  in  nothing  else  in  the  world  but 
the  freight  rates." 

"It's  a  confounded  outrage,"  said  Cornish.  "Can't 
we  get  help  from  the  legislature?" 

"I  understand  that  some  action  is  expected 
next  winter,"  said  I;  "Senator  Conley  had  in  here 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     141 

the  other  day  a  bill  he  has  drawn;  and  it  seems  to 
me  we  should  send  a  strong  lobby  down  at  the 
proper  time  in  support  of  it." 

"Ye-e-s,"  drawled  Jim,  "but  I  believe  in  still 
stronger  measures ;  and  rather  than  bother  with  the 
legislature,  owned  as  it  is  by  the  roads,  I'd  favor 
writing  cuss-words  on  the  water-tanks,  or  going  up 
the  track  a  piece  and  makin'  faces  at  one  of 
their  confounded  whistling-posts  or  cattle-guards — 
or  something  real  drastic  like  that!" 

Cornish,  galled,  as  was  I,  by  this  irony,  flushed 
crimson,  and  rose. 

' '  The  situation , "  said  he ,  "  instead  of  being  a  serious 
one,  as  I  have  believed,  seems  merely  funny.  This 
conference  may  as  well  end.  Having  taken  on 
things  here  under  the  impression  that  this  was  to 
be  a  city-,  it  seems  that  we  are  to  stay  a  village.  It 
occurs  to  me  that  it's  time  to  stand  from  under! 
Good-evening!" 

"Wait!"  said  Hinckley.  "Don't  go,  Cornish;  it 
isn't  as  bad  as  that!" 

As  he  spoke  he  laid  his  hand  on  Cornish's  arm) 
and  I  saw  that  he  was  pale.  He  felt  more  keenly 
than  did  I  the  danger  of  division  and  strife  among 
us. 

"Yes,  Mr.  Hinckley,"  said  Jim,  as  Cornish  sat 
down  again,  "it  is  as  bad  as  that!  This  thing 
amounts  to  a  crisis.  For  one,  I  don't  propose  to 
adopt  the  '  stand-from-under '  tactics.  They  make 
an  unnecessary  disaster  as  certain  as  death;  but  if 
we  all  stand  under  and  lift,  we  can  win  more  than 
we've  ever  thought.  In  the  legislature  they  hold 


142     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

the  cards  and  can  beat  us.  It's  no  use  fooling  with 
that  unless  we  seek  martyrs'  deaths  in  the  bank 
ruptcy  courts.  But  there  is  a  way  to  meet  these 
men,  and  that  is  by  bringing  to  our  aid  their  greatest 
rival." 

"Do  you  mean — "  said  Hinckley. 

"I  mean  Avery  Pendleton  and  the  Pendleton 
system,"  replied  Elkins.  "I  mean  that  we've  got 
to  meet  them  on  their  own  ground.  Pendleton 
won't  declare  war  on  the  Halliday  combination  by 
building  in  here,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  we  can't 
build  to  him,  and  that's  what  I  propose  to  do.  We'll 
take  the  L.  &  G.  W.,  swing  it  over  to  the  east  from 
the  Elk  Fork  up,  make  a  junction  with  Pendleton's 
Pacific  Division,  and,  in  one  week  after  we  get 
trains  running,  we'll  have  the  freight  combine  here 
shot  so  full  of  holes  that  it  won't  hold  corn-stalks! 
That's  what  we'll  do:  we'll  do  a  little  rate-making 
ourselves;  and  we'll  make  this  danger  the  best 
thing  that  ever  happened  to  us.  Do  you  see?" 

Cornish  saw,  sooner  than  any  one  else.  As  he 
spoke,  Jim  had  unrolled  a  map,  and  pointed  out 
the  places  as  he  referred  to  them,  like  a  general,  as 
he  was,  outlining  the  plan  of  a  battle.  He  began  this 
speech  in  that  quiet,  convincing  way  of  his,  only  a 
little  elevated  above  the  sarcasm  of  a  moment  before. 
As  he  went  on,  his  voice  deepened,  his  eye  gleamed, 
and  in  spite  of  his  colloquialisms,  which  we  could 
not  notice,  his  words  began  to  thrill  us  like  potent 
oratory.  We  felt  all  that  ecstasy  of  buoyant  and 
auspicious  rebellion  which  animated  Hotspur  the 
night  he  could  have  plucked  bright  honor  from  the 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     143 

pale-faced  moon.  At  Jim's  final  question,  Cornish, 
forgetting  his  pique,  sprang  to  the  map,  swept  his 
finger  along  the  line  Elkins  had  described,  followed 
the  main  ribs  of  Pendleton's  great  gridiron,  on 
which  the  fat  of  half  a  dozen  states  lay  frying,  on  to 
terminals  on  lakes  and  rivers;  and  as  he  turned  his 
black  eyes  upon  us,  we  knew  from  the  fire  in  them 
that  he  saw. 

"By  heavens!"  he  cried,  "you've  hit  it,  Elkins! 
And  it  can  be  done!  From  to-night,  no  more  paper 
railroads  for  us;  it  must  be  grading-gangs  and  ties, 
and  steel  rails!" 

So,  also,  there  was  good  fighting  when  Cornish 
wired  from  New  York  for  Elkins  and  me  to  come  to 
his  aid  in  placing  our  Lattimore  &  Great  Western 
bonds.  Of  course,  we  never  expected  to  build  this 
railway  with  our  own  funds.  For  two  reasons,  at 
least:  it  is  bad  form  to  do  eccentric  things,  and 
we  lacked  a  million  or  two  of  having  the  money. 
The  line  with  buildings  and  rolling  stock  would  cost, 
say,  twelve  thousand  dollars  per  mile.  Before  it 
could  be  built  we  must  find  some  one  who  would 
agree  to  take  its  bonds  for  at  least  that  sum.  As 
no  one  would  pay  quite  par  for  bonds  of  a  new  and 
independent  road,  we  must  add,  say,  three  thousand 
dollars  per  mile  for  discount.  Moreover,  while  the 
building  of  the  line  was  undertaken  from  motives  of 
self-preservation,  there  seemed  to  be  no  good  reason 
why  we  should  not  organize  a  construction  company 
to  do  the  actual  work  of  building,  and  that  at  a 
profit.  That  this  profit  might  be  assured,  some 
thing  like  three  thousand  dollars  per  mile  more 


144     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

must  go  in.  Of  course,  whoever  placed  the  bonds 
would  be  asked  to  guarantee  the  interest  for  two 
or  three  years;  hence,  with  two  thousand  more  for 
that  and  good  measure,  we  made  up  our  proposed 
issue  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  per  mile  of  first- 
mortgage  bonds,  to  dispose  of  which  "the  former 
member  of  the  firm  of  Lusch,  Carskaddan  &  Mayer" 
was  revisiting  the  glimpses  of  Wall  Street,  and  testing 
the  strength  of  that  mighty  influence  which  the 
Herald  had  attributed  to  him. 

"You've  just  got  to  win,"  said  Giddings,  who  was 
admitted  to  the  secret  of  Cornish's  embassy,  "not 
only  because  Lattimore  and  all  the  citizens  thereof 
will  be  squushed  in  the  event  of  your  slipping  up; 
but,  what  is  of  much  more  importance,  the  Herald 
will  be  laid  in  a  lie  about  your  Wall  Street  pull. 
Remember  that  when  foes  surround  thee ! ' ' 

When  we  joined  him,  Cornish  admitted  that  he  was 
fairly  well  "surrounded."  He  had  failed  to  secure 
the  aid  of  Barr-Smith's  friends,  who  said  that,  with 
the  street-car  system  and  the  cement  works,  they 
had  quite  eggs  enough  in  the  Lattimore  basket 
for  their  present  purposes.  In  fact,  he  had  felt  out 
to  blind  ends  nearly  all  the  promising  burrows  sup 
posedly  leading  to  the  strong  boxes  of  the  investing 
public,  of  which  he  had  told  us.  He  accounted  for 
this  lack  of  success  on  the  very  natural  theory  that 
the  Halliday  combination  had  found  out  about  his 
mission,  and  was  fighting  him  through  its  influence 
with  the  banks  and  trust  companies.  So  he  had 
done  at  last  what  Jim  had  advised  him  to  do  at  first 
—secured  an  appointment  with  the  mighty  Mr, 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     145 

Pendleton;  and,  somewhat  humbled  by  unsuccess, 
had  telegraphed  for  us  to  come  on  and  help  in  pre 
senting  the  thing  to  that  magnate. 

Whom,  being  fenced  off  by  all  sorts  of  guards, 
messengers,  clerks,  and  secretaries,  we  saw  after  a 
pilgrimage  through  a  maze  of  offices.  He  had  not 
the  usual  features  which  make  up  an  imposing  appear 
ance;  but  command  flowed  from  him,  and  authority 
covered  him  as  with  a  mantle.  We  knew  that  he 
possessed  and  exerted  the  power  to  send  prosperity 
in  this  channel,  or  inject  adversity  into  that,  as  a 
gardener  directs  water  through  his  trenches,  and 
this  knowledge  impressed  us.  He  was  rather  thin; 
but  not  so  much  so  as  his  sharp,  high  nose,  his  deep- 
set  eyes,  and  his  bony  chin  at  first  sight  seemed  to 
indicate.  Whenever  he  spoke,  his  nostrils  dilated, 
and  his  gray  eyes  said  more  than  his  lips  uttered.  He 
was  courteous,  with  a  sort  of  condensed  courtesy— 
the  shorthand  of  ceremoniousness.  He  turned  full 
upon  us  from  his  desk  as  we  entered,  rose  and  met 
us  as  his  clerk  introduced  us. 

"Mr.  Barslow,  I'm  happy  to  meet  you;  and  you 
also,  Mr.  Cornish.  Mr.  Wilson  'phoned  about  your 
enterprise  just  now.  Mr.  Elkins,"  as  he  took  Jim's 
hand,  "I  have  heard  of  you  also.  Be  seated,  gentle 
men.  I  have  given  you  a  time  appropriation  of 
thirty  minutes.  I  hope  you  will  excuse  me  for  men 
tioning  that  at  the  end  of  that  period  my  time  will 
be  no  longer  my  own.  Kindly  explain  what  it  is 
you  desire  of  me,  and  why  you  think  that  I  can  have 
interest  in  your  project." 


146     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

And,  with  a  judgment  trained  in  the  valuing  01 
men,  he  turned  to  Jim  as  our  leader. 

"If  our  enterprise  doesn't  commend  itself  to  your 
judgment  in  twenty  minutes,"  said  Jim,  with  a 
little  smile,  and  in  much  the  same  tone  that  he 
would  have  used  in  discussing  a  cigar,  "there'll 
be  no  need  of  wasting  the  other  ten;  for  it's  per 
fectly  plain.  I'll  expedite  matters  by  skipping 
what  we  desire,  for  the  most  part,  and  telling  you 
why  we  think  the  Pendleton  system  ought  to  desire 
the  same  thing.  Our  plan,  in  a  word,  is  to  build  a 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  line,  and  from  it  deliver  two 
full  train-loads  of  through  east-bound  freight  per 
day  to  your  road,  and  take  from  you  a  like  amount 
of  west -bound  tonnage,  not  one  pound  of  which  can 
be  routed  over  your  lines  at  present." 

Mr.  Pendleton  smiled. 

"A  very  interesting  proposition,  Mr.  Elkins," 
said  he;  "my  business  is  railroading,  and  I  am 
always  glad  to  perfect  myself  in  the  knowledge  of 
it.  Make  it  plain  just  how  this  can  be  done,  and  I 
shall  consider  my  half-hour  well  expended." 

Then  began  the  fateful  conversation  out  of  which 
grew  the  building  of  the  Lattimore  &  Great  Western 
Railway.  Jim  walked  to  the  map  which  covered 
one  wall  of  the  room,  and  dropped  statement  after 
statement  into  the  mind  of  Pendleton  like  round, 
compact  bullets  of  fact.  It  was  the  best  piece  of 
expository  art  imaginable.  Every  foot  of  the  road 
was  described  as  to  gradients,  curves,  cuts,  fills, 
trestles,  bridges,  and  local  traffic.  Then  he  began 
with  Lattimore;  and  we  who  breathed  in  nothing 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     147 

but  knowledge  of  that  city  and  its  resources  were 
given  new  light  as  to  its  shipments  and  possibilities 
of  growth.  He  showed  how  the  products  of  our 
factories,  the  grain  from  our  elevators,  the  live 
stock  from  our  yards,  and  the  meats  from  our  pack 
ing-houses  could  be  sent  streaming  over  the  new 
road  and  the  lines  of  Pendleton. 

Then  he  turned  to  our  Commercial  Club,  and 
showed  that  the  merchants,  both  wholesale  and  retail, 
of  Lattimore  were  welded  together  in  its  member 
ship,  in  such  wise  that  their  merchandise  might  be 
routed  from  the  great  cities  over  the  proposed  track. 
He  piled  argument  on  argument.  He  hammered 
down  objection  after  objection  before  they  could 
be  suggested.  He  met  Mr.  Pendleton  in  the  domain 
of  railroad  construction  and  management,  and 
showed  himself  familiar  with  the  relative  values  of 
Pendleton 's  own  lines. 

"Your  Pacific  Division,"  said  he,  "must  have 
disappointed  some  of  the  expectations  with  which  it 
was  built.  Its  earnings  cannot,  in  view  of  the  dis 
tance  they  fall  below  those  of  your  other  lines,  be 
quite  satisfactory  to  you.  Give  us  the  traffic  agree 
ment  we  ask;  and  your  next  report  after  we  have 
finished  our  line  will  show  the  Pacific  Division 
doing  more  than  its  share  in  the  great  showing  of 
revenue  per  mile  which  the  Pendleton  system  always 
makes.  I  see  that  my  twenty  minutes  is  about  up. 
I  hope  I  have  made  good  our  promises  as  to  showing 
cause  for  coming  to  you  with  our  project." 

Mr.  Pendleton,  after  a  moment's  thought,  said: 
"Have  you  made  an  engagement  for  lunch?" 


148     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

We  had  not.  He  turned  to  the  telephone,  and 
called  for  a  number. 

"Is  this  Mr.  Wade's  office?  .  .  .  Yes,  if  you  please 
...  Is  this  Mr.  Wade  ?  .  .  .  This  is  Pendleton  talking 
to  you  .  .  .  Yes,  Pendleton  .  .  .  There  are  some  gen 
tlemen  in  my  office,  Mr.  Wade,  whom  I  want  you  to 
meet,  and  I  should  be  glad  if  you  could  join  us  at 
lunch  at  the  club  .  .  .  Well,  can't  you  call  that  off, 
now?  .  .  .  Say,  at  one-thirty  .  .  .  Yes  .  .  .  Very  kind 
of  you  .  .  .  Thanks!  Good-by." 

Having  made  his  arrangements  with  Mr.  Wade,  he 
hung  up  the  telephone,  and  pushed  an  electric  button. 
A  young  man  from  an  outer  office  responded. 

"Tell  Mr.  Moore,"  said  Pendleton  to  him,  "that 
he  will  have  to  see  the  gentlemen  who  will  call 
at  twelve — on  that  lake  terminal  matter — he  will 
understand.  And  see  that  I  am  not  disturbed  until 
after  lunch  .  .  .  And,  say,  Frank!  See  if  Mr.  Adams 
can  come  in  here — at  once,  please." 

Mr.  Adams,  who  turned  out  to  be  some  sort  of  a 
freight  expert,  came  in,  and  the  rest  of  the  interview 
was  a  bombardment  of  questions,  in  which  we  all 
took  turns  as  targets.  When  we  went  to  lunch  we 
felt  that  Mr.  Pendleton  had  possessed  himself  of  all 
we  knew  about  our  enterprise,  and  filed  the  informa 
tion  a*way  in  some  vast  pigeon-hole  case  with  his 
own  great  stock  of  knowledge. 

We  met  Mr.  Wade  over  an  elaborate  lunch.  He 
said,  as  he  shook  hands  with  Cornish,  that  he  be 
lieved  they  had  met  somewhere,  to  which  Cornish 
bowed  a  frigid  assent.  Mr.  Wade  was  the  head  of 
The  Allen  G.  Wade  Trust  Company,  and  seemed  in 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     149 

a  semi-comatose  condition,  save  when  cates,  wine, 
or  securities  were  under  discussion.  He  addressed 
me  as  "Mr.  Corning,"  and  called  Cornish  "Atkins," 
and  once  in  a  while  opened  his  mouth  to  address 
Jim  by  name,  but  halted,  with  a  distressful  look, 
at  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  he  could  not  remem 
ber  names  enough  to  go  around.  He  made  an 
appointment  with  me  for  the  party  for  the  next 
morning. 

"If  you  will  come  to  my  office  before  you  call  on 
Mr.  Wade,"  said  Mr.  Pendleton,  "I  will  have  a 
memorandum  prepared  of  what  we  will  do  with  you 
in  the  way  of  a  traffic  agreement :  it  may  be  of  some 
use  in  determining  the  desirability  of  your  bonds. 
I'm  very  glad  to  have  met  you,  gentlemen.  When 
Lattimore  gets  into  my  world — by  which  I  mean 
our  system  and  connections — I  hope  to  visit  the 
little  city  which  has  so  strong  a  business  community 
as  to  be  able  to  send  out  such  a  committee  as  your 
selves  ;  good-afternoon ! ' ' 

"Well,"  said  I,  as  we  went  toward  our  hotel,  "this 
looks  like  progress,  doesn't  it?" 

"I  sha'n't  feel  dead  sure,"  said  Jim,  "until  the 
money  is  in  bank,  subject  to  the  check  of  the  con 
struction  company.  But  doesn't  it  look  juicy, 
right  now!  Why,  boys,  with  that  traffic  agreement 
we  can  get  the  money  anywhere — on  the  prairie, 
out  at  sea — anywhere  under  the  shining  sun!  They 
can't  beat  us.  What  do  you  say,  Cornish?  Will 
your  friend  Wade  jar  loose,  or  shall  we  have  to  seek 
further?" 

"He'll  snap    at    your  bonds  now,"  said  Cornish, 


150     A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game. 

rather  glumly,  I  thought,  considering  the  circum 
stances;  "but  don't  call  him  a  friend  of  mine? 
Why,  damn  him,  not  a  week  ago  he  turned  me  out 
of  his  office,  saying  that  he  didn't  want  to  look  into 
any  more  Western  railway  schemes!  And  now  he 
says  he  believes  we've  met  before!" 

This  seemed  to  strike  Mr.  Elkins  as  the  best  prac 
tical  joke  he  had  ever  heard  of;  and  Cornish  sug 
gested  that  for  a  man  to  stop  in  Homeric  laughter  on 
Broadway  might  be  pleasant  for  him,  but  was 
embarrassing  to  his  companions.  By  this  time 
Cornish  himself  was  better-natured.  Jim  took 
charge  of  our  movements,  and  commanded  us  to  a 
dinner  with  him,  in  the  nature  of  a  celebration,  with 
a  theater-party  afterward. 

"Let  us,"  said  he,  "hear  the  chimes  at  midnight, 
or  even  after,  if  we  get  buncoed  doing  it.  Who 
cares  if  we  wind  up  in  the  police  court!  We've 
done  the  deed;  we've  made  our  bluff  good  with 
Halliday  and  his  gang  of  highwaymen;  and  I  feel 
like  taking  the  limit  off,  if  it  lifts  the  roof!  Al, 
hold  your  hand  over  my  mouth  or  I  shall  yell!" 

"Come  into  my  parlor,  and  yell  for  me,"  said 
Cornish,  "and  you  may  do  my  turn  in  police  court, 
too.  Come  in,  and  behave  yourself!" 

I  began  writing  a  telegram  to  my  wife,  apprising 
her  of  our  good  luck.  The  women  in  our  circle 
knew  our  hopes,  ambitions,  and  troubles,  as  the 
court  ladies  know  the  politics  of  the  realm,  and  there 
were  anxious  hearts  in  Lattimore. 

I'm  going  down  to  the  telegraph-office  with  this," 
said  I;  "can  I  take  yours,  too?" 


A  Sitting  or  Two  in  the  Game.     151 

When  I  handed  the  messages  in,  the  man  who 
received  them  insisted  on  my  reading  them  over  with 
him  to  make  sure  of  correct  transmission.  There 
was  one  to  Mr.  Hinckley,  one  to  Mr.  Ballard,  and 
two  to  Miss  Josephine  Trescott.  One  ran  thus, 
"Success  seems  assured.  Rejoice  with  me.  J.  B.  C." 
The  other  was  as  follows:  "In  game  between 
Railway  Giants  and  Country  Jakes  here  to-day, 
visiting  team  wins.  Score,  9  to  o.  Barslow,  catcher, 
disabled.  Crick  in  neck  looking  at  high  buildings. 
Have  Mrs.  B.  prepare  porous  plaster  for  Saturday 
next.  Sell  Halliday  stock  short,  and  buy  L.  &  G.  W. 
And  in  name  all  things  good  and  holy  don't  tell 
Giddings!  J.  R.  E." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

fn  wbicb  we  ILearn  Something  of  IRailroaOs,  an&  attend 
Some  "Kemathablc  Christenings. 

AND  so,  in  due  time,  it  came  to  pass  that,  our 
Aladdin  having  rubbed  the  magic  ring  with  which 
his  Genius  had  endowed  him,  there  came,  out  of 
some  thunderous  and  smoky  realm,  peopled  with 
swart  kobolds,  and  lit  by  the  white  fire  of  gushing 
cupolas  and  dazzling  billets,  a  train  of  carriages,  drawn 
by  a  tamed  volcanic  demon,  on  a  wonderful  way  of 
steel,  armed  strongly  to  deliver  us  from  the  Castle 
Perilous  in  which  we  were  besieged  by  the  Giants. 
The  way  was  marvelously  prepared  by  theodolite  and 
level,  by  tented  camps  of  men  driving,  with  shouts 
and  cracking  whips,  straining  teams  in  circling 
mazes,  about  dark  pits  on  grassy  hillsides,  and  build 
ing  long,  straight  banks  of  earth  across  swales;  by 
huge  machines  with  iron  fists  thrusting  trunks  of 
trees  into  the  earth;  by  mighty  creatures  spinning 
great  steel  cobwebs  over  streams. 

At  last,  a  short  branch  of  steel  shot  off  from 
Pendleton's  Pacific  Division,  grew  daily  longer  and 
longer,  pushed  across  the  level  earth-banks,  the 
rows  of  driven  tree-trunks,  and  the  spun  steel  cob 
webs,  through  the  dark  pits,  nearer  and  nearer  to 

152 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         153 

Lattimore,  and  at  last  entered  the  beleaguered  city, 
amid  rejoicings  of  the  populace.  Most  of  whom 
knew  but  vaguely  the  facts  of  either  siege  or  deliver 
ance;  but  who  shouted,  and  tossed  their  caps,  and 
blew  the  horns  and  beat  the  drums,  because  the 
Herald  in  a  double-leaded  editorial  assured  them 
that  this  was  the  event  for  which  Lattimore  had 
waited  to  be  raised  to  complete  parity  with  her 
envious  rivals.  Furthermore,  Captain  Tolliver,  mag- 
niloquently  enthusiastic,  took  charge  of  the  cheer 
ing,  artillery,  and  band-music,  and  made  a  tumultu 
ous  success  of  it. 

"He  told  me,"  said  Giddings,  "that  when  the 
people  of  the  North  can  be  brought  for  a  moment 
into  that  subjection  which  is  proper  for  the  masses, 
'they  make  devilish  good  troops,  suh,  devilish  good 
troops ! ' ' 

And  so  it  also  happened  that  Mr.  Elkins  found  him 
self  the  president  of  a  real  railway,  with  all  the  per 
quisites  that  go  therewith.  Among  these  being 
the  power  to  establish  town-sites  and  give  them 
names.  The  former  function  was  exercised  accord 
ing  to  the  principles  usually  governing  town-site 
companies,  and  with  ends  purely  financial  in  view. 
The  latter  was  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a  ceremony. 
The  rails  were  scarcely  laid,  when  President  Elkins 
invited  a  choice  company  to  go  with  him  over  the 
line  and  attend  the  christening  of  the  stations.  He 
convinced  the  rest  of  us  of  the  wisdom  of  this,  by 
showing  us  that  it  would  awaken  local  interest  along 
the  line,  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  auction  sales 
of  lots  the  next  week. 


i  54         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

"It's  advertising  of  the  choicest  kind,"  said  he. 
"Giddings  will  sow  it  far  and  wide  in  the  press  dis 
patches,  and  it  will  attract  attention;  and  attention 
is  what  we  want.  We'll  start  early,  run  to  the 
station  Pendleton  has  called  Elkins  Junction,  at  the 
end  of  the  line,  lie  over  for  a  couple  of  hours,  and 
come  home,  bestowing  names  as  we  come.  Help 
me  select  the  party,  and  we'll  consider  it  settled." 

As  the  train  was  to  be  a  light  one,  consisting  of  a 
buffet-car  and  a  parlor-car,  the  party  could  not  be 
very  large.  The  officers  of  the  road,  Mr.  Adams,  who 
was  general  traffic  manager,  and  selected  by  the 
bondholders,  and  Mr.  Kittrick,  the  general  manager, 
who  was  found  in  Kansas  City  by  Jim,  went  down 
first  as  a  matter  of  course.  Captain  Tolliver  and 
his  wife,  the  Trescotts,  the  Hinckleys,  with  Mr. 
Cornish  and  Giddings,  were  put  down  by  Jim;  and  to 
these  we  added  the  influential  new  people,  the 
Alexanders,  who  came  with  the  cement-works,  of 
which  Mr.  Alexander  was  president,  Mr.  Densmore, 
who  controlled  the  largest  of  the  elevators,  and  Mr. 
Walling,  whose  mill  was  the  first  to  utilize  the 
waters  of  our  power-tunnel,  and  who  was  the  visible 
representative  of  millions  made  in  the  flouring 
trade.  Smith,  our  architect,  was  included,  as  was 
Cecil  Barr-Smith,  sent  out  by  his  brother  to  be  super 
intendent  of  the  street-railway,  and  looking  upon  the 
thing  in  the  light  of  an  exile,  comforted  by  the  beau 
tiful  native  princess  Antonia.  We  left  Macdonald 
out,  because  he  always  called  the  young  man  "  Smith," 
and  could  not  be  brought  to  forget  an  early  impres 
sion  that  he  and  the  architect  were  brothers;  besides, 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         155 

said  Jim,  Macdonald  was  afraid  of  the  cars  as  he 
was  of  the  hyphen,  being  most  of  the  time  on  the 
range  with  the  cattle  belonging  to  himself  and  Hinck- 
ley.  Which,  being  interpreted,  meant  that  Mr. 
Macdonald  would  not  care  to  go. 

Mr.  Ballard  was  invited  on  account  of  his  early 
connection  with  the  L.  &  G.  W.  project,  although 
he  was  holding  himself  more  and  more  aloof  from  the 
new  movements,  and  held  forth  often  upon  the  value 
of  conservatism.  Miss  Addison,  who  was  related 
to  the  Lattimore  family,  was  commissioned  to 
invite  the  old  General,  who  very  unexpectedly  con 
sented.  His  son  Will,  as  solicitor  for  the  railway 
company  and  one  of  the  directors,  was  to  be  one  of 
us  if  he  could.  These  with  their  wives  and  some 
invited  guests  from  near-by  towns  made  up  the 
party. 

We  were  well  acquainted  with  each  other  by  this 
time,  so  that  it  was  quite  like  a  family  party  or  a 
gathering  of  old  friends.  Captain  Tolliver  was 
austerely  polite  to  General  Lattimore,  whose  refusal 
to  concern  himself  with  the  question  as  to  whether 
our  city  grew  to  a  hundred  thousand  or  shrunk  to 
five  he  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  a  man 
who  had  led  hired  ruffians  to  trample  out  the  liberty 
of  a  brave  people  must  be  morally  warped. 

The  General  came,  tall  and  spare  as  ever,  wearing 
his  beautiful  white  moustache  and  imperial  as  a 
Frenchman  would  wear  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  He  was  quite  unable  to  sympathize  with 
our  lot -selling,  our  plenitude  of  corporations,  or 
our  feverish  pushing  of  "developments."  But  the 


156         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

building  of  the  railway  attracted  him.  He  looked 
back  at  the  new-made  track  as  we  flew  along;  and 
his  eyes  flashed  under  the  bushy  white  brows.  He 
sat  near  Josie,  and  held  her  in  conversation  much  of 
the  outward  trip;  but  Jim  he  failed  to  appreciate, 
and  treated  indifferently. 

"He  is  History  incarnate,"  said  Mrs.  Tolliver, 
"and  cannot  rejoice  in  the  passing  of  so  much  that 
is  a  part  of  himself." 

Giddings  said  that  this  was  probably  true;  and 
under  the  circumstances  he  couldn't  blame  him. 
He,  Giddings,  would  feel  a  little  sore  to  see  things 
which  were  a  part  of  himself  going  out  of  date.  It 
was  a  natural  feeling.  Whereupon  Mrs.  Tolliver 
addressed  her  remarks  very  pointedly  elsewhere; 
and  Antonia  Hinckley  privately  admonished  Gid 
dings  not  to  be  mean:  and  Giddings  sought  the 
buffet  and  smoked.  Here  I  joined  him,  and  over 
our  cigars  he  confessed  to  me  that  life  to  him 
was  an  increasing  burden,  rapidly  becoming  intoler 
able. 

We  had  noticed,  I  informed  him,  an  occasional 
note  of  gloom  in  his  editorials.  This  ought  not  to 
be,  now  that  the  real  danger  to  our  interests  seemed 
to  be  over,  and  we  were  going  forward  so  wonderfully. 
To  which  he  replied  that  with  the  gauds  of  worldly  suc 
cess  he  had  no  concern.  The  editorials  I  criticised 
were  joyous  and  ebulliently  hilarious  compared  with 
those  which  might  be  expected  in  the  future.  If 
we  could  find  some  blithesome  ass  to  pay  him  for 
the  Herald  enough  money  to  take  him  out  of  our 
scrambled  Bedlam  of  a  town,  bring  the  idiot  on, 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         157 

and  he  (Giddings)  would  arrange  things  so  we  could 
have  our  touting  done  as  we  liked  it ! 

Now  the  Herald  had  become  a  very  valuable  prop 
erty,  and  of  all  men  Giddings  had  the  least  reason 
to  speak  despitefully  of  Lattimore;  and  his  frame  of 
mind  was  a  mystery  to  me,  until  I  remembered 
that  there  was  supposed  to  be  something  amiss 
between  him  and  Laura  Addison.  Craftily  leading 
the  conversation  to  the  point  where  confidences 
were  easy,  I  was  rewarded  by  a  passionate  disclosure 
on  his  part,  which  would  have  amounted  to  an 
outburst,  had  it  not  been  restrained  by  the  presence 
of  Cornish,  Hinckley,  and  Trescott  at  the  other  end 
of  the  compartment. 

"Oh,  pshaw!"  said  I,  "you've  nocause  for  despair. 
On  your  own  showing,  there's  every  reason  for  you 
to  hope." 

"You  don't  know  the  situation,  Barslow,"  he 
insisted,  shaking  his  head  gloomily,  "and  there's 
no  use  in  trying  to  tell  you.  She's  too  exalted  in 
her  ideals  ever  to  accept  me.  She's  told  me  things 
about  the  qualities  she  must  have  in  the  one  who 
should  be  nearest  to  her  that  just  simply  shut  me 
out;  and  I  haven't  called  since.  Oh,  I  tell  you, 
Barslow,  sometimes  I  feel  as  if  I  could — Yes,  sir, 
it'll  be  accepted  as  the  best  piece  of  railroad  building 
for  years!" 

I  was  surprised  at  the  sudden  transition,  until  I 
saw  that  our  fellow  passengers  were  crowding  to 
our  end  of  the  car  in  response  to  the  conductor's 
announcement  that  we  were  coming  into  Elkins 
Junction.  I  made  a  note  of  Giddings's  state  of 


158         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

mind,  as  the  subject  of  a  conference  with  Jim.  The 
Herald  was  of  too  much  importance  to  us  for  this  to  be 
neglected.  The  disciple  of  lago  must  in  some  way 
be  restored  to  his  normal  view  of  things.  I  could 
not  help  smiling  at  the  vast  difference  between  his 
view  of  Laura  and  mine.  I,  wrongly  perhaps, 
thought  her  affectedly  pietistic,  with  ideals  likely 
to  be  yielding  in  spirit  if  the  letter  were  pre 
served. 

Elkins  Junction  was  a  platform,  a  depot,  an  eating- 
house,  and  a  Y;  and  it  was  nothing  else. 

"We've  come  up  here,"  said  Jim,  "to  show  you 
probably  the  smallest  town  in  the  state,  and  the 
only  one  in  the  world  named  after  me.  We  wanted 
to  show  you  the  whole  line,  and  Mr.  Schwartz  felt 
as  if  he'd  prefer  to  turn  his  engine  around  for  the 
return  trip.  The  last  two  towns  we  came  through, 
and  hence  the  first  two  going  back,  are  old  places. 
The  third  station  is  a  new  town,  and  Conductor 
Corcoran  will  take  us  back  there,  where  we'll  unveil 
the  name  of  the  station,  and  permit  the  people  to 
know  where  they  live.  While  we're  doing  the 
sponsorial  act,  lunch  will  be  prepared  and  ready  for 
us  to  discuss  during  the  next  run." 

On  the  way  back  there  was  a  stir  of  suppressed 
excitement  among  the  passengers. 

"It's  about  this  name,"  said  Miss  Addison  to 
her  seat-mate.  "The  town  is  on  the  shore  of  Mirror 
Lake,  and  they  say  it  will  be  an  important  one, 
and  a  summer  resort;  and  no  one  knows  what  the 
name  is  to  be  but  Mr.  Elkins." 

"Really,  a  very  odd  affair!"  said  Miss  Allen,  of 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         159 

Fairchild,  Antonia's  college  friend.  "It  makes  a 
social  function  of  the  naming  of  a  town!" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Elkins,  "and  it  is  one  of  the 
really  enduring  things  we  can  do.  Long  after  the 
memory  of  every  one  here  is  departed,  these  villages 
will  still  bear  the  names  we  give  them  to-day.  If 
there's  any  truth  in  the  belief  that  some  people 
have,  that  names  have  an  influence  for  good  or  evil, 
the  naming  of  the  towns  may  be  important  as  building 
the  railroad." 

I  was  sitting  with  Antonia.  Miss  Allen  and  Cap 
tain  Tolliver  were  with  us,  our  faces  turned  toward 
one  another.  General  Lattimore,  with  Josie  and 
her  father,  was  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  car. 
Most  of  the  company  were  sitting  or  standing  near,  and 
the  conversation  was  quite  general. 

"Oh,  it's  like  a  romance !"  half  whispered  Antonia 
to  us.  "I  envy  you  men  who  build  roads  and  make 
towns.  Look  at  Mr.  Elkins,  Sadie,  as  he  stands 
there!  He  is  master  of  everything;  to  me  he  seems 
as  great  as  Napoleon!" 

She  neither  blushed  nor  sought  to  conceal  from 
us  her  adoration  for  Jim.  It  was  the  day  of  his 
triumph,  and  a  fitting  time  to  acknowledge  his  king- 
hood;  and  her  admission  that  she  thought  him  the 
greatest,  the  most  excellent  of  men  did  not  surprise 
me.  Yet,  because  he  was  older  than  she,  and  had 
never  put  himself  in  a  really  loverlike  attitude 
toward  her,  I  thought  it  was  simply  an  exalted 
girlish  regard,  and  not  at  all  what  we  usually  under 
stand  by  an  affair  of  the  heart.  Moreover,  at  that 
time  such  praise  as  she  gave  him  would  not  have 


160         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

been  thought  extravagant  in  almost  any  social 
gathering  in  Lattimore.  Let  me  confess  that  to 
me  it  does  not  now  seem  so  ...  Cecil  Barr-Smith 
walked  out  and  stood  on  the  platform. 

General  Lattimore  was  apparently  thinking  of 
the  features  of  the  situation  which  had  struck 
Antonia  as  romantic. 

"You  young  men,"  said  he,  "are  among  the  last 
of  the  city-builders  and  road-makers.  My  genera 
tion  did  these  things  differently.  We  went  out 
with  arms  in  our  hands,  and  hewed  out  spaces  in 
savagery  for  homes.  You  don't  seem  to  see  it; 
but  you  are  straining  every  nerve  merely  to  shift 
people  from  many  places  to  one,  and  there  to  exploit 
them.  You  wind  your  coils  about  an  inert  mass, 
you  set  the  dynamo  of  your  power  of  organization 
at  work,  and  the  inert  mass  becomes  a  great  magnet. 
People  come  flying  to  it  from  the  four  quarters  of 
the  earth,  and  the  first-comers  levy  tribute  upon 
them,  as  the  price  of  standing-room  on  the  magnet!" 

"I  nevah  hea'd  the  real  merit  and  strength  and 
safety  of  ouah  real-estate  propositions  bettah  stated, 
suh!"  said  Captain  Tolliver  ecstatically. 

Jim  stood  looking  at  the  General  with  sober 
regard. 

"Go  on,  General,"  said  he. 

"Not  only  that,"  went  on  the  General,  "but 
people  begin  forestalling  the  standing-room,  so  as 
to  make  it  scarcer.  They  gamble  on  the  power 
of  the  magnet,  and  the  length  of  time  it  will  draw. 
They  buy  to-day  and  sell  to-morrow;  or  cast  up 
what  they  imagine  they  might  sell  for,  and  call 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         161 

the  increase  profit.  Then  comes  the  time  when  the 
magnet  ceases  to  draw,  or  the  forestallers,  having, 
in  their  greed,  grasped  more  than  they  can  keep, 
offer  too  much  for  the  failing  market,  and  all  at 
once  the  thing  stops,  and  the  dervish-dance  ends 
in  coma,  in  cold  forms  and  still  hands,  in  misery 
and  extinction!" 

There  was  a  pause,  during  which  the  old  soldier 
sat  looking  out  of  the  widow,  no  one  else  finding 
aught  to  say.  Elkins  remained  standing,  and  once 
or  twice  gave  that  little  movement  of  the  head 
which  precedes  speech,  but  said  nothing.  Cornish 
smiled  sardonically.  Josie  looked  anxiously  at  Jim, 
apprehensive  as  to  how  he  would  take  it.  At  last 
it  was  Ballard  the  conservative  who  broke  silence. 

"I  hope,  General,"  said  he,  "that  our  little  move 
ment  won't  develop  into  a  dervish-dance.  Anyhow, 
you  will  join  in  our  congratulations  upon  the  com 
pletion  of  the  railroad.  You  know  you  once  did 
some  railroad-building  yourself,  down  there  in 
Tennessee — I  know,  for  I  was  there.  And  I've 
always  taken  an  interest  in  track-laying  ever  since." 

"So  have  I,"  said  the  General;  "that's  what 
brought  me  out  to-day." 

"Oh,  tell  us  about  it,"  said  Josie,  evidently  pleased 
at  the  change  of  subject;  "tell  us  about  it,  please." 

"No,  no!"  he  protested,  "you  may  read  it  better 
in  the  histories,  written  by  young  fellows  who  know 
more  about  it  than  we  who  were  there.  You'll  find, 
when  you  read  it,  that  it  was  something  like  this: 
Grant's  host  was  over  around  Chattanooga,  starving 
for  want  of  means  for  carrying  in  provisions.  We 


1 62         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

were  marching  eastward  to  join  him,  when  a  message 
came  telling  us  to  stop  at  Decatur  and  rebuild  the 
railroad  to  Nashville.  So,  without  a  thought  that 
there  was  such  a  thing  as  an  impossibility,  we  stopped 
— we  seven  or  eight  thousand  common  Americans, 
volunteer  soldiers,  picked  at  random  from  the  legions 
of  heroes  who  saved  liberty  to  the  world — and 
without  an  engineering  corps,  without  tools  or 
implements,  with  nothing  except  what  any  like 
number  of  our  soldiers  had,  we  stopped  and  built 
the  road.  That  is  all.  The  rails  had  been  heated, 
and  wound  about  trees  and  stumps.  The  cross-ties 
were  burned  to  heat  the  rails.  The  cars  had  been 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  their  warped  ironwork 
thrown  into  ditches.  The  engines  lay  in  scrap-heaps 
at  the  bottoms  of  ravines  and  rivers.  The  bridges 
were  gone.  Out  of  the  chaos  to  which  the  structure 
had  been  resolved,  there  was  nothing  left  but  the 
road-bed. 

"When  I  think  of  what  we  did,  I  know  that  with 
liberty  and  intelligence  men  with  their  naked  hands 
could,  in  short  space,  re-create  the  destroyed  wealth 
of  the  world.  We  made  tools  of  the  scraps  of  iron 
and  steel  we  found  along  the  line.  We  felled  trees. 
We  impressed  little  sawmills  and  sawed  the  logs 
into  timbers  for  bridges  and  cars.  Out  of  the 
battle-scarred  and  march-worn  ranks  came  creative 
and  constructive  genius  in  such  profusion  as  to 
astound  us,  who  thought  we  knew  them  so  well. 
Those  blue-coated  fellows,  enlisted  and  serving  as 
food  for  powder,  and  used  to  destruction,  rejoiced  in 
once  more  feeling  the  thrill  there  is  in  making  things." 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         163 

"Out  of  the  ranks  came  millers,  and  ground  the 
grain  the  foragers  brought  in;  came  woodmen,  and 
cut  the  trees;  came  sawyers,  and  sawed  the  lumber. 
We  asked  for  blacksmiths;  and  they  stepped  from 
the  ranks,  and  made  their  own  tools  and  the  tools 
of  the  machinists.  We  called  for  machinists;  and 
out  of  the  ranks  they  stepped,  and  rebuilt  the  engines, 
and  made  the  cars  ready  for  the  carpenters.  When 
we  wanted  carpenters,  out  of  the  same  ranks  of 
common  soldiers  they  walked,  and  made  the  cars. 
From  the  ranks  came  other  men,  who  took  the  twisted 
rails,  unwound  them  from  the  stumps  and  unsnarled 
them  from  one  another,  as  women  unwind  yarn, 
and  laid  them  down  fit  to  carry  our  trains.  And  in 
forty  days  our  message  went  back  to  Grant  that 
we  had  'stopped  and  built  the  road,'  and  that  our 
engines  were  even  then  drawing  supplies  to  his  hungry 
army.  Such  was  the  incomparable  army  which  was 
commanded  by  that  silent  genius  of  war;  and  to 
have  been  one  of  such  an  army  is  to  have  lived! " 

The  withered  old  hand  trembled,  as  the  great 
past  surged  back  through  his  mind.  We  all  sat  in 
silence;  and  I  looked  at  Captain  Tolliver,  doubtful 
as  to  how  he  would  take  the  old  Union  general's 
speech.  What  the  Captain's  history  had  been 
none  of  us  knew,  except  that  he  was  a  Southerner. 
When  the  general  ceased,  Tolliver  was  sitting  still, 
with  no  indication  of  being  conscious  of  anything 
special  in  the  conversation,  except  that  a  red  spot 
burned  in  each  dark  cheek.  As  the  necessity  for 
speech  grew  with  the  lengthening  silence,  he  rose 
and  faced  General  Lattimore. 


164         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

"Suh,"  said  he,  "puhmit  a  man  who  was  with  the 
victohs  of  Manasses;  who  chahged  with  mo'  sand 
than  sense  at  Franklin;  and  who  cried  like  a  child 
aftah  Nashville,  and  isn't  ashamed  of  it,  by  gad!  to 
off  ah  his  hand,  and  to  say  that  he  agrees  with  you, 
suh,  in  youah  tribute  to  the  soldiers  of  the  wah,  and 
honahs  you,  suh,  as  a  fohmah  foe,  and  a  worthy  one, 
and  he  hopes,  a  future  friend!" 

Somehow,  the  Captain's  swelling  phrases,  his  sonor 
ous  allusions  to  himself  in  the  third  person,  had  for 
the  moment  ceased  to  be  ridiculous.  The  environ 
ment  fitted  the  expression.  The  general  grasped  his 
hand  and  shook  it.  Then  Ballard  claimed  the  right, 
as  one  of  the  survivors  of  Franklin,  to  a  share  in  the 
reunion,  and  they  at  once  removed  the  strain  which 
had  fallen  upon  us  with  the  General's  first  speech,  by 
relating  stories  and  fraternizing  soldierwise,  until 
Conductor  Corcoran  called  in  at  the  door,  "Mystery 
Number  One!  All  out  for  the  christening !'J 

As  we  gathered  on  the  platform,  we  saw  that  the 
signboard  on  the  station-building,  for  the  name  of 
the  town,  had  been  put  up,  but  was  veiled  by  a 
banner  draped  over  it.  Tents  were  pitched  near, 
in  which  people  lived  waiting  for  the  lot-auction, 
that  they  might  buy  sites  for  shops  and  homes. 
The  waters  of  the  lake  shone  through  the  trees 
a  few  rods  away ;  and  in  imagination  I  could  see  the 
village  of  the  future,  sprinkled  about  over  the  beau 
tiful  shore.  The  future  villagers  gathered  near  the 
platform;  and  when  Jim  stepped  forward  to  make 
the  speech  of  the  occasion,  he  had  a  considerable 
audience. 


Railroads  and  Christenings.         165 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "our  visit  is  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  the  interest  which  the  Lat- 
timore  &  Great  Western  takes  and  will  continue  to 
take  in  the  towns  on  its  line,  and  to  add  a  name  to 
what,  I  notice,  has  already  become  a  local  habitation. 
In  conferring  that  name,  we  are  aware  that  the 
future  citizens  of  the  place  have  claims  upon  us. 
So  one  has  been  selected  which,  as  time  passes,  will 
grow  more  and  more  pleasant  to  your  ears;  and  one 
which  the  person  bestowing  it  regards  as  an  honor  to 
the  town  as  high  as  could  be  conferred  in  a  name.  No 
station  on  our  lines  could  have  greater  claims  upon 
our  regard  than  the  possession  of  this  name.  And 
now,  gentlemen — 

Mr.  Elkins  removed  his  hat,  and  we  all  followed 
his  example.  Some  one  pulled  a  cord,  the  banner 
fell  away,  and  the  name  was  revealed.  It  was 
"JOSEPHINE."  The  women  looked  at  it,  and  turned 
their  eyes  on  Josie,  who  blushed  rosily,  and  shrank 
back  behind  her  father,  who  burst  into  a  loud  laugh 
of  unalloyed  pleasure. 

"I  propose  three  cheers  for  the  town  of  Josephine," 
went  on  Mr.  Elkins,  "and  for  the  lady  for  whom  it 
is  named!" 

They  were  real  cheers — good  hearty  ones ;  followed 
by  an  address,  in  the  name  of  the  town,  by  a  bright 
young  man  who  pushed  forward  and  with  surprising 
volubility  thanked  President  Elkins  for  his  selection 
of  the  name,  and  closed  with  flowery  compliments  to 
the  blushing  Miss  Trescott,  whose  identity  Jim  had 
disclosed  by  a  bow.  He  was  afterwards  a  thorn 
in  our  flesh  in  his  practice  as  a  personal-injury  lawyer. 


1 66         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

At  the  time,  however,  we  warmed  to  him,  as  under 
his  leadership  the  dwellers  in  the  tents  and  round 
about  the  waters  of  Mirror  Lake  all  shook  hands  with 
Jim  and  Josie. 

Cornish  stood  with  a  saturnine  smile  on  his  face, 
and  glared  at  some  of  the  more  pointed  hits  of  the 
young  lawyer.  Cecil  Barr-Smith  beamed  radiant 
pleasure,  as  he  saw  the  evident  linking  in  this  public 
way  of  Jim's  name  and  Josie's.  Antonia  stood 
close  to  Cecil's  side,  and  chatted  vivaciously  to  him — 
not  with  him;  for  her  words  seemed  to  have  no 
correlation  with  his. 

"Quite  like  the  going  away  of  a  bridal  party!" 
said  she  with  exaggerated  gayety,  and  with  a  little 
spitefulness,  I  thought.  "Has  any  one  any  rice? " 

"All  aboard!"  said  Corcoran;  and  the  joyful  and 
triumphant  party,  with  their  outward  intimacy  and 
their  inward  warfare  of  passions  and  desires,  rolled 
on  toward  "Mystery  Number  Two,"  which  was  duly 
christened  "Cornish,"  and  celebrated  in  champagne 
furnished  by  its  godfather. 

"Don't  you  ever  drink  champagne?"  said  Cornish, 
as  Josie.  declined  to  partake. 

"Never,"  said  she. 

"What,  never?"  he  went  on,  Pinaforically. 

"My  God!"  thought  I,  "the  assurance  of  the 
man!"  And  the  palm-encircled  alcove  at  Auriccio's, 
as  it  was  wont  so  often  to  do,  came  across  my  vision, 
and  shut  out  everything  but  the  Psyche  face  in  its 
ruddy  halo,  speeding  by  me  into  the  street,  and  the 
vexed  young  man  in  the  faultless  attire  slowly 
following. 


Railroads  and   Christenings.         167 

Mystery  Number  Three  was  "Antonia,"  a  lovely 
little  place  in  embryo ;  "  Barslow  "  came  next,  followed 
by  "Giddings"  and  "Tolliver."  We  were  tired  of 
it  when  we  reached  "Hinckley,"  platted  on  a  farm 
owned  by  Antonia's  father,  and  where  we  ceased  to 
perform  the  ceremony  of  unveiling.  It  was  a  memo 
rable  trip,  ending  with  sunset  and  home.  Captain 
Tolliver  assisted  General  Lattimore  to  alight  from 
the  train,  and  they  went  arm  in  arm  up  to  the  old 
General's  home. 

That  night,  according  to  his  wont,  Jim  came  to 
smoke  with  me  in  the  late  evening.  "Let's  take  a 
car,"  said  he,  "and  go  up  and  have  a  look  at  the 
houses." 

These  were  our  new  mansions  up  in  Lynhurst 
Park  Addition,  now  in  process  of  erection.  In  the 
moonlight  we  could  see  them  dimly,  and  at  a  little 
distance  they  looked  like  masses  of  ruins — the 
secOnd  childhood  of  houses.  A  stranger  could  have 
seen,  from  the  polished  columns  and  the  piles  of 
carved  stone,  that  they  were  to  be  expensive  and 
probably  beautiful  structures. 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  General  in  the  r61e  of 
Cassandra? "  asked  Jim,  as  we  sat  in  the  skeleton  room 
which  was  to  be  his  library. 

"It  struck  me,"  said  I,  "as  a  particularly  artistic 
bit  of  croaking!" 

"The  Captain  says  frequently,"  said  Jim,  his 
cigar  glowing  like  a  variable  star,  ' '  that  opportunity 
knocks  once.  The  General,  I'm  afraid,  knocks  all 
the  time.  But  if  it  should  turn  out  that  he's  right 
about  the — the — dervish-dance  ...  it  would  be  ... 


1 68         Railroads  and  Christenings. 

to  put  it  mildly  ...  a  horse  on  us,  Al,  wouldn't 
it?" 

I  had  no  answer  to  this  fanciful  speech,  and  made 
none.  Instead,  I  told  him  of  Giddings's  love-sickness. 

"The  philosophy  of  I  ago  has  broken  down,"  said 
he,  "and  the  boy  is  sort  of  short-circuited.  Antonia 
can  take  him  in  hand,  and  turn  him  out  full  of  confi 
dence;  and  with  that,  I'll  answer  for  the  lady.  That 
can  be  fixed  easy,  and  ought  to  be.  Let's  walk  back." 

"What  was  it  he  said?"  he  asked,  as  we  parted. 
"'Coma,  cold  forms,  still  hands,  and  extinction.' 
Well,  if  the  dervish-dance  does  wind  up  in  that  sort 
of  thing,  it's  only  a  short-cut  to  the  inevitable. 
Those  are  pretty  houses  up  there;  we'd  have  been 
astounded  over  them  when  we  used  to  fish  together 
on  Beaver  Creek; — but  suppose  they  are? 

"  '  They  say  the  Lion  and  the  Lizard  keep 

The  Courts  where  Jamshyd  gloried  and  drank  deep; 
And  Bahram,  that  great  hunter — the  Wild  Ass 
Stamps  o'er  his  Head,  but  cannot  break  his  Sleep! ' 

Good-night,  Al!" 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Some  Bfiafts  of  tbe  Deart  ConeiDereO  in  tbeir  "Relation 
to  dollars  and  Cente. 

ANTONIA  was  sitting  in  a  hammock.  Josie  and 
Alice  were  not  far  away  watching  Cecil  Barr-Smith, 
who  was  wading  into  the  lake  to  get  water-lilies  for 
them,  contrary  to  the  ordinances  of  the  city  of 
Lattimore  in  such  cases  made  and  provided.  The 
six  were  dawdling  away  our  time  one  fine  Sunday 
in  Lynhurst  Park.  I  forgot  to  say  Mr.  Elkins  and 
myself  were  discussing  affairs  of  state  with  Miss 
Hinckley. 

"He's  such  a  ninny,"  said  Antonia. 

"Aren't  all  people  when  in  his  forlorn  condition?" 
asked  Jim. 

Antonia  looked  away  at  the  clouds,  and  did  not 
reply. 

"But  if  he  had  a  morsel  of  the  cynical  philosophy 
he  boasts  of,"  said  she,  "he  could  see." 

"I  don't  know  about  that,"  said  Jim  lazily,  look 
ing  over  at  the  other  group;  "a  woman  can  conceal 
her  feelings  in  such  a  case  pretty  completely." 

"I  don't  know  about  that,"  echoed  Antonia.  "I 
wish  I  did;  it  would  simplify  things." 

169 


i  jo         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

"I  believe,"  said  I,  "that  it's  a  simple  enough  mat 
ter  for  you  to  solve  and  manage  as  it  is." 

"But  it's  so  absurd  to  bother  with!"  said  she; 
"and  what's  the  use?" 

"Doesn't  it  seem  that  way?"  said  Jim.  "And 
yet  you  know  we  brought  him  here  for  a  definite 
purpose;  and  in  his  present  state  he  can't  make 
good.  Just  read  his  editorial  this  morning:  it 
would  add  gloom  to  the  proceedings,  read  at  a  funeral. 
We  want  things  whooped  up,  and  he  wants  to  whoop 
'em;  but  long  screeds  on  'The  Sacred  Right  of  Self- 
destruction'  hurt  things,  and  bring  the  paper  into 
disrepute,  and  crowd  out  optimistic  matter  that  we 
desire.  And  as  long  as  both  families  want  the  thing 
brought  about,  and  there  is  good  reason  to- think  that 
Laura  will  not  prove  eternally  immovable,  I  take  it 
to  be  an  important  enough  matter,  from  the  stand 
point  of  dollars  and  cents,  for  the  exercise  of  our 
diplomacy." 

"Well,  then,"  said  Antonia,  "get  the  people 
together  on  some  social  occasion,  and  we'll  try." 

"I've  thought,"  said  Jim,  "of  having  a  house- 
warming — as  soon  as  the  weather  gets  so  that  the 
very  name  of  the  function  won't  keep  folks  away. 
My  house  is  practically  done,  you  know." 

"Just  the  thing,"  said  Antonia.  "There  are  cosy 
nooks  and  deep  retreats  enough  to  make  it  a  sort  of 
labyrinth  for  the  ensnaring  of  our  victims." 

"Isn't  it  a  queer  thing  in  language,"  said  Jim,  "that 
these  retreats  are  the  places  where  advances  are 
made!" 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.          171 

"Not  when  you  consider,"  said  Antonia,  "that 
retreats  follow  repulses." 

"We  ought  to  have  the  Captain  and  the  General 
here,  if  this  military  conversation  is  to  continue," 
said  I.  "And  here  comes  Cecil.  Stop  before  he 
comes,  or  we  shall  never  get  through  with  the  explana 
tion  of  the  jokes." 

This  remark  elicited  the  laughter  which  the  puns 
failed  to  provoke;  for  Cecil  was  color-blind  in  all 
things  relating  to  the  American  joke.  The  humor 
of  Punch  appealed  to  him,  and  the  wit  of  Sterne 
and  Dean  Swift;  but  the  funny  column  and  the 
paragrapher's  niche  of  our  newspapers  he  regarded 
as  purely  pathological  phenomena.  I  sometimes  feel 
that  Cecil  was  right  about  this.  Can  the  mind 
which  continues  to  be  charmed  by  these  paragraphic 
strainings  be  really  sound  ? — but  this  is  not  a  disserta 
tion.  Cecil  reconciled  himself  to  his  position  as 
the  local  exemplification  of  the  traditional  English 
man  whose  trains  of  ideas  run  on  the  freight  schedule 
— and  was  one  of  the  most  popular  fellows  in  Latti- 
more.  He  gloried  in  his  slavery  to  Antonia,  and 
seemed  to  glean  hope  from  the  most  sterile  circum 
stances. 

It  was  easy  to  hope,  in  Lattimore,  then.  It  was 
not  many  days  after  our  talk  in  the  park  before  I 
noticed  a  change  for  the  better  in  Giddings,  even. 
Just  before  Jim's  house-warming,  he  came  to  me 
with  something  like  optimism  in  his  appearance.  I 
started  to  cheer  him  up,  and  went  wrong. 

"I'm  glad  to  see  by  your  cheerful  looks,"  said  I, 
"that  the  philosophy  of  lago — 


172         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

"Say,  now!"  cried  he,  "don't  remind  me  of  that, 
for  Heaven's  sake!" 

"Why,  certainly  not,"  said  I,  "if  you  object." 

"I  do  object,"  said  he  most  earnestly;  "why,  that 
damned-fool  philosophy  may  have  ruined  my  life, 
you  know." 

"Of  course  I  know  what  you  mean,"  said  I;  "but 
I'm  convinced,  and  so  are  all  your  friends,  that  if  you 
fail,  it'll  be  your  own  lack  of  nerve,  and  nothing  else, 
that  you'll  owe  the  disaster  to.  You  should — " 

"  I  should  have  refrained  from  trampling  under  foot 
the  dearest  ideals  of  the  only  girl—  However,  I 
can't  talk  of  these  things  to  any  one,  Barslow.  But  I 
have  some  hope  now.  Antonia  and  Josie  have  both 
been  very  kind  lately— and  say,  Barslow,  I  see  now 
how  little  foundation  there  is  for  that  old  gag  about 
the  women  hating  each  other!" 

"I've  always  felt,"  said  I,  anxious  to  draw  him  out 
so  that  I  might  see  what  the  conspirators  had  been 
doing,  "that  there's  nothing  in  that  idea.  But  what 
has  changed  your  view?" 

"Antonia,  and  Josie,  and  even  your  wife,"  said  he, 
"have  been  keeping  up  a  regular  lobby  in  my  behalf 
with  Laura.  They  think  they've  got  the  deal 
plugged  up  now,  so  that  she'll  give  me  a  show 
again,  and— 

"Why,  surely,"  said  I;  "in  my  opinion,  there 
never  was  any  need  for  you  to  feel  downcast." 

"Barslow,"  he  said,  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  has 
endured  to  the  limit,  "you  are  a  good  fellow,  but  you 
make  me  tired  when  you  talk  like  that.  Why, 
four  weeks  ago  I  had  no  more  show  than  a  snowball 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.         173 

in — in  the  crater  of  Vesuvius.  But  now  I'm  encour 
aged.  These  girls  have  been  doing  me  good,  as  I 
just  said,  and  I'm  convinced  that  my  series  of  edi 
torials  on  'The  Influence  of  Christianity  on  Civili 
zation,'  in  which  I've  given  the  Church  the  credit  of 
being  the  whole  thing,  has  helped  some." 

"They  ought  to  do  good  somewhere,"  said  I, 
"they  certainly  haven't  boomed  Lattimore  any." 

"Damn  Lattimore!"  said  he  bitterly.  "When  a 
man's  very  life — But  see  here,  Barslow,  I  know 
you're  not  in  earnest  about  this.  And  I'll  be  all 
right  in  a  day  or  two,  or  I'll  be  eternally  wrong.  I'm 
going  to  make  one  final  cast  of  the  die.  I  may  go 
down  to  bottomless  perdition,  or  I  may  be  caught 
up  to  the  battlements  of  heaven;  but  such  a 
mass  of  doubts  and  miseries  as  I've  been  lately, 
I'll  no  longer  be!  Pray  for  me,  Barslow,  pray  for 
me!" 

This  despairing  condition  of  Giddings's  was  a  sort 
of  continuing  sensation  with  us  at  that  time.  We 
discussed  it  quite  freely  in  all  its  aspects,  humorous 
and  tragic.  It  was  so  unexpected  a  development  in 
the  young  man's  character,  and,  with  all  due  respect 
to  the  discretion  and  resisting  powers  of  Miss  Addison, 
so  entirely  gratuitous  and  factitious. 

"He  has  ability  as  a  writer,"  said  the  Captain; 
"but  in  such  a  mattah  anybody  but  a  fool  ought  to 
see  that  the  thing  to  do  is  to  chahge  the  intrench- 
ments.  I  trust  that  I  may  not  be  misunde 'stood 
when  I  say  that,  in  my  opinion,  a  good  rattling  chahge 
would  not  be  a  fo'lo'n  hope!" 

"It  bothers,"  said  Jim;  "and  if  it  weren't  for  that, 


174         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

I'd  feel  conscience-stricken  at  doing  anything  to  rob 
the  idiot  of  a  most  delicious  grief." 

The  coolness  of  early  autumn  was  in  the  air  the 
night  of  Jim's  house-warming.  To  describe  his  dwell 
ing,  in  these  days  when  fortunes  are  spent  on  the 
details  of  a  stairway,  and  a  king's  ransom  for  the 
tapestries  of  a  salon,  all  of  which  luxuries  are  spread 
before  the  eyes  of  the  public  in  the  columns  of  Sunday 
papers  and  magazines,  would  be  to  court  an  anti 
climax.  But  this  was  before  the  multimillionaire 
had  made  the  need  for  an  augmentative  of  the  word 
"luxury";  and  Jim's  house  was  noteworthy  for  its 
beauty:  its  cunningly  wrought  iron  and  wood;  and 
columned  halls  and  stairways;  and  wide-throated 
fireplaces,  each  a  picture  in  tile,  wood,  and  metal- 
work;  and  vistas  like  little  fairylands  through 
silken  portieres;  and  carven  chairs  and  couches, 
reminiscent  of  royal  palaces;  and  chambers  where 
lovely  color-schemes  were  worked  out  in  rug,  and 
bed,  and  canopy.  There  were  decorations  made  by 
men  whose  names  were  known  in  London  and  Paris. 
From  out-of-the-way  places  Mr.  Elkins  had  brought 
collections  of  queer  and  interesting  and  pretty 
things  which,  all  his  life,  he  had  been  accumulating; 
and  in  his  library  were  broad  areas  of  well-worn 
book-backs.  Somehow,  people  looked  upon  the  Mr. 
Elkins  who  was  master  of  all  these  as  a  more  impor 
tant  man  than  the  Elkins  who  had  blown  into  the 
town  on  some  chance  breeze  of  speculation,  and 
taken  rooms  at  the  Centropolis. 

It  was  all  light  and  color,  that  night.  Even  the 
formal  flower-beds  of  the  grounds  and  the  fountain 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.         175 

spouting  on  the  lawn  were  like  scenery  in  the  lime 
light.  Only,  back  in  the  shrubbery  there  were  darker 
nooks  in  summer-houses  and  arbors  for  those  who 
loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds, 
to  the  common  mind,  were  likely  to  seem  foolish.  I 
remember  thinking  that  if  Mr.  Giddings  really 
wanted  a  chance  to  take  the  high  dive  of  which  he 
had  spoken  to  me,  the  opportunity  was  before  him. 

His  Laura  was  there,  her  devotee-like  expression 
striving  with  an  exceedingly  low-cut  dress  to  sound  the 
distinguishing  note  of  her  personality.  Giddings  was 
at  the  punch-bowl  as  on  their  arrival  she  swept  past 
with  the  General.  When  he  saw  the  nun-like  glance 
over  the  swelling  bosom,  the  poor  stricken  cynic 
blushed,  turned  pale,  and  wheeled  to  flee.  But 
Cecil,  as  if  following  orders,  arrested  him  and  began 
plying  him  with  the  punch — from  which  Giddings 
seemed  to  draw  courage:  for  I  saw  him,  soon,  gravi 
tate  to  her  whom  he  loved  and  so  mysteriously 
dreaded. 

"It's  a  pe'fect  jewel-case  of  a  house!"  said  the 
Captain,  as  he  moved  with  the  trooping  company 
through  the  mansion. 

"Indeed,  indeed  it  is,"  said  Mrs.  Tolliver  to  Alice; 
"the  jewel,  whoever  it  may  be,  is  to  be  envied." 

"I  hope,"  said  Jim  to  Josie,  "that  you  agree 
with  Mrs.  Tolliver?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Josie,  "but  you  attach  far  too 
much  importance  to  my  judgment.  If  it  is  any 
comfort  to  you,  however,  I  want  to  praise — every 
thing — unreservedly. ' ' 

"I  won't   know,  for  a   while,"  said  Jim,  "whether 


1 76         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

it  is  to  be  my  house  only,  or  home  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  word." 

"One  doesn't  know  about  that,  I  fancy,"  said 
Cecil;  "for  a  long  time — 

"I  mean  to  know  soon,"  said  Jim. 

Josie  was  looking  intently  at  the  carving  on  one 
of  the  chairs,  and  paid  no  heed,  though  the  remark 
seemed  to  be  addressed  to  her. 

"What  I  mean,  you  know,"  said  Cecil,  "is  that,  no 
matter  how  well  the  house  may  be  built  and  furnished, 
it's  the  associations,  the  history  of  the  place,  the 
things  that  are  in  the  air,  that  makes  'Ome!" 

There  was  in  the  manner  of  his  capitalizing  the 
word  as  he  uttered  it,  and  in  the  unwonted  elision 
of  the  H,  that  tribute  to  his  dear  island  which  the 
exiled  Briton  (even  when  soothed  by  the  consolation 
offered  by  street-car  systems  to  superintend,  and 
rose-pink  blondes  to  serve),  always  pays  when  he 
speaks  of  Home. 

"Associations,"  said  Jim,  "may  be  historical  or 
prophetic.  In  the  former  case,  we  have  to  take  them 
on  trust;  but  as  to  those  of  the  future,  we  are  sure  of 
them." 

"Yahs,"  said  Cecil,  using  the  locution  which  he 
always  adopted  when  something  subtle  was  said  to 
him,  "I  dare  say!  I  dare  say!" 

"Well,  then,"  Jim  went  on,  "I  have  this  matter 
of  the  atmosphere  or  associations  under  my  own 
control." 

"Just  so,"  said  Cecil.  "Clever  conceit,  Miss  Tres- 
cott,  isn't  it,  now?" 

But  Miss  Trescott  had  apparently  heard  nothing  of 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.          1 77 

Jim's  speech,  and  begged  pardon;  and  wouldn't  they 
go  and  show  her  the  bronzes  in  the  library  ? 

"This  mansion,  General,"  said  the  Captain, 
"takes  one  back,  suh,  to  the  halcyon  days  of  Ameri 
can  history.  I  refeh,  suh,  to  those  times  when  the 
plantahs  of  the  black  prairie  belt  of  Alabama  lived 
like  princes,  in  the  heart  of  an  enchanted  empire!" 

"A  very  interesting  period,  Captain,"  said  the 
General.  "It  is  a  pity  that  the  industrial  basis  was 
one  which  could  not  endure!" 

"In  the  midst  of  fo'ests,  suh,"  went  on  the  Cap 
tain,  "we  had  ouah  mansions,  not  inferio'  to  this — 
each  a  little  kingdom  with  its  complete  wo'ld  of 
amusements,  its  cote,  and  its  happy  populace, 
goin'  singin'  to  the  wo'k  which  supported  the  estate! " 

"Yes,"  said  the  General,  "  I  thought,  when  we  were 
striking  down  that  state  of  things,  that  we  were 
doing  a  great  thing  for  that  populace.  But  I  now 
see  that  I  was  only  helping  the  black  into  a  new 
slavery,  the  fruits  of  which  we  see  here,  around  us, 
to-night." 

"  I  hahdly  get  youah  meaning,  suh — 

"Well,"  said  the  General,  looking  about  at  the 
little  audience.  (It  was  in  the  smoking-room,  and 
those  present  were  smokers  only.)  "Well,  now, 
take  my  case.  I  have  some  pretty  valuable  grounds 
down  there  where  I  live.  When  I  got  them,  they  were 
worthless.  I  could  build  as  good  a  mansion  as  this 
or  any  of  your  ante-bellum  Alabama  houses  for  what 
I  can  get  out  of  that  little  tract.  What  is  that  value? 
Merely  the  expression  in  terms  of  money  of  the  power 
of  excluding  the  rest  of  mankind  from  that  little  piece 


178          Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

of  ground.  I  make  people  give  me  the  fruits  of 
their  labor,  myself  doing  nothing.  That's  what 
builds  this  house  and  all  these  great  houses,  and 
breeds  the  luxury  we  are  beginning  to  see  around 
us;  and  the  consciousness  that  this  slavery  exists, 
and  is  increasing,  and  bids  fair  to  grow  greatly,  is 
what  is  making  men  crazy  over  these  little  spots  of 
ground  out  here  in  the  West !  It  is  this  slavery— 

"Suh,"  exclaimed  the  Captain,  rising  and  grasping 
the  General's  hand,  "you  have  done  me  the  favo' 
of  making  me  wisah!  I  nevah  saw  so  cleahly  the 
divine  decree  which  has  fo'eo'dained  us  to  this  opu 
lence.  Nothing  so  satisfactory,  suh,  as  a  basis  and 
reason  foh  investment,  has  been  advanced  in  my 
hearing  since  I  have  been  in  the  real-estate  business! 
Let  us  wo'k  this  out  a  little  mo'  in  detail,  if  you 
please,  suh — 

"Let  us  escape  while  there  is  yet  time!"  said  Cor 
nish;  and  we  fled. 

After  supper  there  was  a  cotillion.  The  spacious 
ballroom,  with  its  roof  so  high  that  the  lights  up 
there  were  as  stars,  was  a  sight  which  could  scarcely 
be  reconciled  with  the  village  community  which  he  had 
found  and  changed.  The  palms,  and  flowers,  and 
lights  which  decorated  the  room;  the  orchestra's 
river  of  dance-music;  the  men,  all  in  the  black  livery 
which — on  the  surface — marks  the  final  conquest 
of  civilization  over  barbarism;  the  beautiful  gowns, 
the  sparkling  jewels,  and  the  white  shoulders  and 
arms  of  the  ladies — all  these  made  me  wonder  if  I 
had  not  been  transported  to  some  May  fair  or  New 
port,  so  pictorial,  so  decorative,  so  charged  with  art, 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.          179 

it  seemed  to  be.  The  young  people,  carrying  on 
their  courtships  in  these  unfamiliar  halls,  their  dis 
appearances  into  the  more  remote  and  tenebrous  out 
skirts  of  the  assembly — all  seemed  to  me  to  be 
taking  place  on  the  stage,  or  in  some  romance. 

I  told  Alice  about  this  as  we  walked  home — it 
was  only  across  the  street — to  our  own  new  house. 

"Don't  tell  any  one  about  this  feeling  of  yours," 
said  she.  "It  betrays  your  provincialism,  my  dear. 
You  should  feel,  for  the  first  time  in  your  life,  per 
fectly  at  home.  'Armor,  rusting  on  his  walls,  On 
the  blood  of  Clifford  calls,'  you  know." 

"Mine  didn't  hear  the  call,"  said  I;  "I'm  probably 
the  first  of  my  race  to  wear  this —  But  I  enjoyed 
it." 

"Well,  I  am  too  full  of  something  that  took  place 
to  discuss  the  matter,"  said  she,  as  we  sat  down  at 
home.  "I  am  perplexed.  You  know  about  Mr. 
Cornish  and  Josie,  don't  you?" 

She  startled  me,  for  I  had  never  told  her  a  word. 

"Know  about  them!"  I  cried,  a  little  dramatically. 
"What  do  you  mean?  No,  I  don't!" 

"Why,  what's  the  matter,  Albert?"  she  queried. 
"  I  haven't  charged  them  with  midnight  assassination, 
or  anything  like  that!  Only,  it  seems  that  he  has 
been  making  love  to  her,  for  some  time,  in  his  cool 
and  self-contained  way.  I've  known  it,  and  she's  been 
perfectly  conscious,  that  I  knew;  but  never  said  any 
thing  to  me  of  it,  and  seemed  unwilling  even  to 
approach  the  subject.  But  to-night  Cecil  and  I 
found  her  out  in  the  canopied  seat  by  the  fountain, 
and  I  knew  something  was  the  matter,  and  sent  Cecil 


180         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

away.  Something  told  me  that  Mr.  Cornish  was 
concerned  in  it,  and  I  asked  her  at  once  where  he 
went. 

" ' He  is  gone! '  said  she.  "I  don't  know  where  he  is, 
and  I  don't  care!  I  wish  I  might  never  see  him  any 
more ! ' 

"You  may  imagine  my  surprise.  When  a  young 
woman  uses  such  language  about  a  man,  it  is  a  cer 
tainty  that  she  isn't  voicing  her  true  feelings,  or 
that  it  isn't  a  normal  love  affair.  So  I  wormed  out 
of  her  that  he  had  made  her  an  offer." 

"'Well,'  said  I,  'if,  as  I  infer  from  your  con 
versation,  you  have  refused  him,  there's  an  end  of  the 
matter;  and  you  need  not  worry  about  seeing  him 
any  more. ' 

"'But,'  said  she,   'Alice,  I  haven't  refused  him!' 

"That  took  me  aback  a  little,"  went  on  Alice,  "for 
I  had  other  plans  for  her;  so  I  said:  'You  haven't 
accepted  the  fellow,  have  you?' 

"'Oh,  no,  no!'  said  she,  in  a  sort  of  quivery  way, 
'but  what  right  have  you  to  speak  of  him  in  that 
way?'  And  that  is  all  I  could  get  out  of  her.  She 
was  so  unreasonable  and  disconnected  in  her  talk, 
and  the  others  came  out,  and  I  tell  you  what,  Albert 
Barslow,  that  man  Cornish  will  do  evil  yet,  among 
us!  I  have  always  thought  so!" 

"I  don't  see  any  ground  for  any  such  prediction," 
said  I,  "in  anything  you  have  told  me.  Her  in 
ability  to  make  up  her  mind — 

"Means  that  there's  something  wrong,"  said  my  wife 
dogmatically.  "It  means  that  he  has  some  sinister 
influence  over  her,  as  he  has  over  almost  everybody, 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart.          181 

with  those  coal-black  eyes  of  his  and  his  satanic 
ways.  And  worse  than  all  else,  it  means  that  he'll 
finally  get  her,  in  spite  of  herself!" 

"Pshaw!"  said  I. 

"Go  away,  Albert!"  said  she,  "or  we  shall  quarrel. 
Go  back  and  find  my  fan — I  left  it  on  the  mantel  in 
the  library.  The  house  is  lighted  yet;  and  I  was 
going  to  send  you  back  anyhow.  Kiss  me,  and  go, 
please." 

I  felt  that  if  Alice  had  had  in  her  memory  my 
vision  of  the  supper  at  Auriccio's,  she  would  have 
been  confirmed  in  her  fears;  but  to  me,  in  spite  of 
the  memory,  they  seemed  absurd.  My  only  appre 
hension  was  that  she  might  be  right  as  to  the  final 
outcome,  to  the  wreck  of  Jim's  hopes.  I  did  not 
take  the  matter  at  all  seriously,  in  fact.  I  think  we 
men  must  usually  have  such  an  affair  worked  out  to 
some  conclusion,  for  weal  or  woe,  before  we  regard 
it  otherwise  than  lightly.  That  was  the  reason 
that  Giddings's  distraught  condition  was  only  a 
matter  of  laughter  to  all  of  us.  And  as  something 
like  this  passed  through  my  mind,  Giddings  himself 
collared  me  as  I  crossed  the  street. 

"Old  man!"  said  he,  "congratulate  me!  It's  all 
right,  Barslow,  it's  all  right." 

"Up  on  the  battlements,  are  you?"  said  I.  "Well, 
I  congratulate  you,  Giddings;  and  don't  make  such 
an  ass  of  yourself,  please,  any  more.  In  ever  noticed 
until  this  evening  what  a  fine  girl  Laura  is.  You're 
really  a  very  fortunate  fellow  indeed!" 

"You  never  noticed  it!"  said  he  with  utter  scorn. 
"Well,  if—" 


i  82         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

"It's  late,"  said  I.  "Come  and  see  me  in  the 
morning!  Good-night." 

I  went  in  at  the  front  door  of  the  house.  It  stood 
wide  open,  as  if  the  current  of  guests  passing  out 
had  removed  its  tendency  to  swing  shut.  It  seemed 
lonely  now,  inside,  with  all  the  decorations  of  the 
assembly  still  in  place  in  the  empty  hall.  I  passed 
into  the  library,  and  found  Jim  sitting  idly  in  a 
great  leather  chair.  He  seemed  not  to  see  me;  or 
if  he  did,  he  paid  no  attention.  I  went  to  the  mantel, 
picked  up  Alice's  fan,  and  turned  to  Jim. 

"Sit  down,"  said  he. 

"Having  a  sort  of  'oft  in  the  stilly  night'  experi 
ence,  Jim,  or  a  case  of  William  the  Conqueror  on 
the  Field  of  Hastings?" 

"Yes,"  said  he.     "Something  like  that." 

"Well,  your  house-warming  has  been  a  success, 
Jim,"  said  I,  "though  a  fellow  wouldn't  think  so  to 
look  at  you.  And  the  house  is  faultless.  I  envy 
you  the  house,  but  the  ability  to  plan  and  furnish  it 
still  more.  I  didn't  think  it  was  in  you,  old  man! 
Where  did  you  learn  it  all?" 

"You  may  have  the  house,  if  you  want  it,  Al," 
said  he.  "I  don't  think  it's  going  to  be  of  any  use 
to  me." 

"Why,  Jim,"  said  I,  seeing  that  it  was  something 
more  than  a  mere  mood  with  him,  "what  is  it?  Has 
anything  gone  wrong?" 

"Nothing  that  I've  any  right  to  complain  of," 
said  he.  "Of  course,  no  man  puts  as  much  of  his 
life  into  such  a  thing  as  I  have  into  this — without 
thinking  of  more  than  living  in  it — alone.  I've 


Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart  183 

never  had  what  you  can  really  call  a  home — not 
since  I  was  a  little  chap,  when  it  was  home  wherever 
there  were  trees  and  mother.  I've  filled  this — 
with  those  associations  I  spoke  to  Barr-Smith  about 
— to-night — a  little  more  than  I  seem  to  have  had 
any  warrant  to  do.  I  tried  to  make  sure  about 
the  jewel  for  the  jewel-case  to-night,  and  it  went 
wrong,  Al;  and  that's  all  there  is  of  it.  I  don't 
think  I  shall  need  the  house,  and  if  you  like  it  you 
can  have  it." 

"Do  you  mean  that  Josie  has  refused  you?" 
said  I. 

"She  didn't  put  it  that  way,"  said  he,  "but  it 
amounts  to  that." 

"Nothing  that  isn't  a  refusal,"  said  I,  "ought  to 
be  accepted  as  such.  What  did  she  say  ? " 

"Nothing  definite,"  he  answered  wearily,  "only 
that  it  couldn't  be  'yes,'  and  when  I  urged  her  to 
make  it  'yes'  or  'no,'  she  refused  to  say  either;  and 
asked  me  to  forget  that  I  had  ever  said  anything  to 
her  about  the  matter.  There  have  been  some 
things  which — led  me  to  hope — for  a  different 
answer;  and  I'm  a  good  deal  taken  down,  Al  .  .  .  I 
wouldn't  like  to  talk  this  way — with  any  one  else." 

There  seemed  to  be  no  reason  for  abandonment 
of  hope,  I  urged  upon  him,  and  after  a  cigar  or  so 
I  left  him,  evidently  impressed  with  this  view  of 
the  case,  but  nevertheless  bitterly  disappointed. 
It  meant  delay  and  danger  to  his  hopes;  and  Jim 
was  not  a  man  to  brook  delay,  or  suffer  danger  to 
go  unchallenged.  I  dared  not  tell  him  of  Cornish's 
offer,  and  of  its  fate,  so  similar  to  his. 


184         Some  Affairs  of  the  Heart. 

"I  wonder  if  it  is  coquetry  on  her  part,"  thought 
I,  as  I  went  back  with  the  fan.  "  I  wonder  if  it  will 
cause  things  to  go  wrong  in  our  business  affairs.  I 
wonder  if  it  is  possible  for  her  to  be  sincerely  unable 
to  make  up  her  mind,  or  if  there  is  anything  in 
Alice's  malign-influence  theory.  Anyhow,  in  the 
department  of  Cupid  business  certainly  is  picking 
up!" 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
Some  tlbinfis  wbicb  t>appene&  in  <S>ur  Dalcgon  Dags. 

IF  there  was  any  tension  among  us  just  after  the 
house-warming,  it  was  not  noticeable.  Mr.  Cornish 
and  Mr.  Elkins  seemed  unaware  of  their  rivalry. 
Had  either  of  the  two  been  successful,  it  might  have 
made  mischief;  but  as  it  was,  neither  felt  that  his 
rejection  was  more  than  temporary.  Neither  knew 
much  of  the  other's  suit,  and  both  seemed  full  of 
hope  and  good  spirits. 

Altogether,  these  were  our  halcyon  days.  It 
seemed  to  crew  and  captain  a  time  for  the  putting 
off  of  armor,  and  the  donning  of  the  garlands  of 
complacent  respite  from  struggle.  The  work  we 
had  undertaken  seemed  accomplished — our  village 
was  a  city.  The  great  wheel  we  had  set  whirling 
went  spinning  on  with  power.  Long  ago  we  had 
ceased  to  treat  the  matter  jocularly;  and  to  regard 
our  operations  as  applied  psychology  only,  or  as  a 
piratical  reunion,  no  longer  occurred  to  us.  There 
is  such  a  thing,  I  believe,  as  self-hypnotism;  but  if 
we  knew  it,  we  made  no  application  of  our  knowledge 
to  our  own  condition.  This  great,  scattered,  ebul 
lient  town,  grown  from  the  drowsy  Lattimore  of  a 

185 


i  86  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

few  years  ago,  must  surely  be,  even  now,  what  we 
had  willed  it  to  be:  and  therefore,  could  we  not 
pause  and  take  our  ease? 

There  was  the  General,  of  course.  He,  Jim  said, 
"'knocked'  so  constantly  as  to  be  sort  of  ex-officio 
President  of  the  Boiler-makers'  Union,"  and  talked 
of  the  inevitable  collapse.  But  who  ever  heard 
of  a  city  built  by  people  of  his  way  of  thinking  ?  And 
there  was  Josie  Trescott,  with  her  agreement  on 
broad  lines  with  the  General,  and  her  deprecation  of 
the  giving  of  fortunes  to  people  who  had  not  earned 
them;  but  Josie  was  only  a  woman,  who,  to  be  sure, 
knew  more  of  most  matters  than  the  rest  of  us,  but 
could  not  have  any  very  valuable  knowledge  of  the 
prospects  for  commercial  prosperity. 

That  we  were  in  the  midst  of  an  era  of  the  most 
wonderful  commercial  prosperity  none  denied.  How 
could  they?  The  streets,  so  lately  bordered  with 
low  stores,  hotels,  and  banks,  were  now  craggy  with 
tall  office  buildings  and  great  hostelries,  through 
which  the  darting  elevators  shot  hurrying  passengers. 
Those  trees  which  made  early  twilight  in  the  streets 
that  night  when  Alice,  Jim,  and  I  first  rode  out  to  the 
Trescott  farm  were  now  mostly  cut  down  to  make 
room  for  "improvements." 

Brushy  Creek  gorge  was  no  longer  dark  and  cool, 
with  its  double  sky-line  of  trees  drowsing  toward 
one  another,  like  eyelashes,  from  the  friendly  cliffs. 
The  cooing  of  the  pigeons  was  gone  forever.  The 
muddied  water  from  the  great  flume  raced  down 
through  the  ravine,  turning  many  wheels,  but  nowhere 
gathering  in  any  form  or  place  which  seemed  good 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  187 

for  trout.  On  either  side  stood  shanties,  and  ram 
shackle  buildings  where  such  things  as  stonecutting 
and  blacksmithing  were  done.  Along  the  waterside 
ran  the  tracks  of  our  Terminal  and' Belt  Line  System, 
on  which  trains  of  flat-cars  always  stood,  engaged  in 
the  work  of  carrying  away  the  cliffs,  in  which  they 
were  aided  and  abetted  by  giant  derricks  and  the 
fiends  of  dynamite  and  nitre-glycerin.  Limekilns 
burned  all  the  time,  turning  the  companionable 
gray  ledges  into  something  offensive  and  corrosive. 
One  must  now  board  a  street-car,  and  ride  away 
beyond  Lynhurst  Park  before  one  could  find  the 
good  and  pure  little  Brushy  Creek  of  yore. 

The  dwellers  in  the  houses  which  stood  in  their 
lawns  of  vivid  green  had  gone  away  into  the  new 
"additions,"  to  be  in  the  fashion,  and  to  escape 
from  the  smoke  and  clang  of  engine  and  factory. 
Their  old  houses  were  torn  away,  or  converted,  by 
new  and  incongruous  extensions,  into  cheap  board 
ing-houses.  Only  the  Lattimore  house  kept  faith 
with  the  past,  and  stood  as  of  old,  in  its  five  acres  of 
trees  and  grass,  untouched  of  the  fever  for  platting 
and  subdivision,  its  very  skirts  drawn  up  from  the 
asphalt  by  austere  retaining-walls.  And  here  went 
on  the  preparation  for  the  time  when  Laura  and 
Clifford  were  to  stand  up  and  declare  their  purposes 
and  intentions  with  reference  to  each  other.  The 
first  wedding  this  was  to  be,  in  all  our  close-knit 
circle. 

"I  am  glad,"  said  I,  "that  they  are  all  so  sensible  as 
not  to  permit  rivalries  to  breed  discord  among  us. 
It  might  be  disastrous." 


1 88  Our  Halcyon  Days. 


"There  is  time,"  said  Alice,  "for  that  to  develop 
yet." 

Not  that  everything  happened  as  we  wished.  In 
deed,  some  things  gave  us  much  anxiety.  Bill  Trescott, 
for  instance,  began  at  last  to  show  signs  of  that  going 
up  in  the  air  which  Jim  had  said  we  must  keep  him 
from.  Even  Captain  Tolliver  complained  that  Bill's 
habits  were  getting  bad:  and  he  was  the  last  person 
in  the  world  to  censure  excess  in  the  vices  which  he 
deemed  gentlemanly.  His  own  idea  of  morning,  for 
instance,  was  that  period  of  the  day  when  the  bad 
taste  in  the  mouth  so  natural  to  a  gentleman  is 
removed  by  a  stiff  toddy,  drunk  just  before  prayers. 
He  would,  no  doubt,  have  conceded  to  the  inventor 
of  the  alphabet  a  higher  place  among  men  than  that 
of  the  discoverer  of  the  mint  julep,  had  the  matter 
been  presented  to  him  in  concrete  form;  but  would 
have  qualified  the  admission  by  adding,  with  a 
seriousness  incompatible  with  the  average  conception 
of  a  joke:  "But  the  question  is  sutt'nly  one  not 
entiahly  free  from  doubt,  suh;  not  entiahly  free 
from  doubt!" 

However,  the  Captain  had  his  standards,  and 
prescribed  for  himself  limits  of  time,  place,  and  degree, 
to  which  he  faithfully  conformed.  But  he  had 
been  for  a  long  time  doing  business  under  a  sort  of 
partnership  arrangement  with  Bill,  and  their  affairs 
had  become  very  much  interwoven.  So  he  came  to 
us,  one  day,  in  something  like  a  panic,  on  finding 
that  Bill  had  become  a  frequenter  of  one  of  the 
local  bucket-shops,  and  had  been  making  maudlin 
boasts  of  the  profitable  deals  he  had  made. 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  189 

"This  means,  gentlemen,"  said  the  Captain, 
'that  influences  entiahly  fo'eign  to  ouah  invest 
ments  hyah  ah  likely  to  bring  a  crash,  which  will 
not  only  wipe  out  Mr.  Trescott,  but,  owin'  to  ouah 
association  in  the  additions  we  have  platted,  cyah'y 
me  down  also!  You  can  see  that  with  sev'al  hun 
dred  thousand  dolla's  of  deferred  payments  on  what 
we  have  sold,  most  of  which  have  been  rediscounted 
in  the  East  by  the  G.  B.T.,  Mr.  Trescott's  condition 
becomes  something  of  serious  conce'n  fo'  you-all> 
as  well  as  fo'  me.  Nothing  else,  I  assuah  you, 
gentlemen,  could  fo'ce  me  to  call  attention  to  a 
mattah  so  puahly  pussonal  as  a  diffe'nce  between 
gentlemen  in  theiah  standahds  of  inebriety!  Noth 
ing  else,  believe  me!" 

By  the  G.  B.  T.  the  Captain  meant  the  Grain  Belt 
Trust  Company,  and  anything  which  affected  its 
solvency  or  welfare  was,  as  he  said,  a  matter  of 
serious  concern  for  all  of  us.  In  fact,  at  that  very 
moment  there  were  in  Lattimore  two  officers  of  New 
England  banks  with  whom  we  had  placed  a  rather 
heavy  line  of  G.  B.  T.  securities,  and  who  had  made 
the  trip  for  the  purpose  of  looking  us  up.  Suppose 
that  they  found  out  that  the  notes  and  mortgages  of 
William  S.  Trescott  &  Co.  really  had  back  of  them 
only  some  very  desirable  suburban  additions,  and 
the  personal  responsibility  of  a  retired  farmer,  who 
was  daily  handing  his  money  to  board-of-trade 
gamblers,  with  whom  he  was  getting  an  education 
in  the  great  strides  we  are  making  in  the  matter  of 
mixed  drinks?  This  thought  occurred  to  all  of  us 
at  once. 


190  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

"Well,"  said  Cornish,  stating  the  point  of  agree 
ment  after  the  Captain's  trouble  had  been  fully  dis 
cussed,  "unfortunately  'the  right  to  be  a  cussed 
fool  is  safe  from  all  devices  human,'  and  there  doesn't 
seem  to  be  any  remedy." 

It  all  came,  thought  I,  as  Jim  and  I  sat  silent  after 
Cornish  and  the  Captain  went  out ,  from  the  fact  that 
Bill's  present  condition  in  life  gave  those  tendencies 
to  which  he  had  always  been  prone  to  yield,  a  chance 
for  unrestricted  growth.  He  ought  to  have  staid  with 
his  steers.  Cattle  and  corn  were  the  only  things  in 
which  he  could  take  an  interest  sufficiently  keen 
to  keep  him  from  drink.  These  habits  of  his  were 
enacting  the  old  story  of  the  lop-eared  rabbits  in 
Australia — overrunning  the  country.  Bill  had  been 
as  sober  a  citizen  as  one  could  desire,  as  long  as  his 
house-building  occupied  his  time;  and  he  and  Josie 
had  worked  together  as  companionably  as  they  used 
to  do  in  the  hay  and  wheat.  But  now  he  was 
drifting  away  from  her.  Her  father  should  have 
staid  on  the  farm. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  I,  "that  Giddings  is  making 
about  as  great  a  fool  of  himself  as  Bill?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jim,  "but  that's  because  he's  in  a 
terrible  state  of  mind  about  his  marriage.  If  we  can 
keep  him  -from  delirium  tremens  until  after  the 
wedding,  he'll  be  all  right.  Some  Italian  brain- 
sharp  has  written  up  cases  like  his,  and  he'll  be  all 
right.  But  with  Bill  it's  different.  .  .  .  Do  you 
remember  our  old  Shep?" 

"No,"  I  returned  wonderingly,  almost  impa 
tiently.  "What  about  him?" 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  191 

"Well,"  he  mused,  "I've  been  picking  up  knowl 
edge  of  men  for  a  while  along  back;  and  I've  come 
to  prize  more  highly  the  personal  history  of  dogs; 
and  Shep  was  worth  a  biography  for  its  own  sake, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  value  of  a  typical  case.  He 
was  a  woolly  collie,  who  would  cheerfully  have 
given  up  his  life  for  the  cows  and  sheep.  Anything 
in  his  line,  that  a  dog  could  grasp,  Shep  knew,  and 
he  was  busier  than  a  cranberry-merchant  the  year 
around,  and  the  happiest  thing  on  the  farm.  Then 
our  folks  moved  to  Mayville,  and  took  him  along. 
He  wasn't  fitted  for  town  life  at  all.  He'd  lie  on  the 
front  piazza,  and  search  the  street  for  cows  and 
sheep,  and  when  one  came  along  he'd  stick  his  sharp 
nose  through  the  fence,  and  whine  as  if  some  one  was 
whipping  him.  In  less  than  six  weeks  he  bit  a 
baby;  in  two  months  he  was  the  most  depraved 
dog  in  Mayville,  and  in  three  ...  he  died." 

I  had  no  answer  for  the  apologue — not  even  for 
the  self -condemnatory  tone  in  which  he  told  it. 
Presently  he  rose  to  go,  and  said  that  he  would 
not  be  back. 

"Don't  forget  our  date  at  the  club  this  evening," 
said  he,  as  he  passed  out.  "Your  style  of  diplomacy 
always  seems  to  win  with  these  down-East  bankers. 
Your  experience  as  rob-ee  gives  you  the  right  hand 
shake  and  the  subscribed-and-sworn-to  look  that 
does  their  business  for  'em  every  time.  Good-by 
until  then." 

Our  club  was  the  terminal  bud  of  our  growth, 
and  was  housed  in  a  building  of  which  we  were  enor 
mously  proud.  It  was  managed  by  a  steward  im- 


192  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

ported  from  New  York,  whose  salary  was  made  large 
to  harmonize  with  his  manners — t'hat  being  the  only 
way  in  which  the  majority  of  our  members  felt  equal 
to  living  up  to  them.  So  far  as  money  could  make  a 
club,  ours  was  of  high  rank.  There  were  meat- 
cooks  and  pastry-cooks  in  incredible  numbers, 
under  the  command  of  a  French  chef,  who  ruled  the 
house  committee  with  a  rod  of  iron.  We  were  all 
members  as  a  matter  of  public  duty.  I  have  often 
wondered  what  the  servants,  brought  from  Eastern 
cities,  thought  of  it  all.  To  see  Bill  Trescott  and 
Aleck  Macdonald  going  in  through  the  great  door, 
noiselessly  swung  open  for  them  by  an  attendant  in 
livery,  was  a  sight  to  be  remembered.  The  chief 
ornament  of  the  club  was  Cornish,  who  lived  there. 

"I  want  to  see  Mr.  Cornish,"  said  I  to  the  servant 
who  took  my  overcoat,  that  evening. 

"Right  this  way,  sir,"  said  he.  "Mr.  Giddings  is 
with  him.  He  gave  orders  for  you  to  be  shown  up." 

Cornish  sat  at  a  little  round  table  on  which  there 
were  some  bottles  and  glasses.  The  tipple  was  evi 
dently  ale,  and  Mr.  Giddings  was  standing  opposite, 
lifting  a  glass  in  one  hand  and  pointing  at  it  with 
the  other,  in  evident  imitation  of  the  attitude  in 
which  the  late  Mr.  Gough  loved  to  have  himself  pic 
tured;  but  the  sentiments  of  the  two  speakers  were 
quite  different. 

"  '  Turn  out  more  ale;  turn  up  the  light ! '  ' 

Giddings  glanced  at  the  electric  light-fixtures, 
and  then  looked  about  as  if  for  a  servant  to  turn 
them  up. 


Oui   Halcyon  Days.  193 

"  '  I  will  not  go  to  bed  to-night ! 

For,  of  all  foes  that  man  should  dread, 
The  first  and  worst  one  is  a  bed  ! 
Friends  I  have  had,  both  old  and  young ; 
Ale  have  we  drunk,  and  songs  we've  sung. 
Enough  you  know  when  this  is  said, 
That,  one  and  all,  they  died  in  bed  ! '  ' 

Here  Giddings's  voice  broke  with  grief,  and  he 
stopped  to  drink  the  rest  of  the  glassful,  and  went  on: 

"  '  In  bed  they  died,  and  I'll  not  go 

Where  all  my  friends  have  perished  so  ! 
Go,  ye  who  fain  would  buried  be; 
But  not  to-night  a  bed  for  me  ! '  " 

'  Do  you  often  have  these  Horatian  fits? "  I  inquired 
"Base  groveler!"  said  he,  "if  you  can't  rise  to  the 
level  of  the  occasion,  don't  butt  in." 

' '  '  For  me  to-night  no  bed  prepare, 
But  set  me  out  my  oaken  chair, 
And  bid  me  other  guests  beside 
The  ghosts  that  shall  around  me  glide  ! '  " 

"You  will,  of  course, "said  Cornish,  "  permit  us  to 
withdraw  for  the  purpose  of  having  our  conference 
with  our  Eastern  friends  ?  If  I  take  your  meaning, 
you'll  not  be  alone." 

"Not  by  a  jugful,  I'll  not  be  alone!"  said  Gid- 
dings,  tossing  off  another  glass: 

"  'In  curling  smoke- wreaths  I  shall  see 
A  fair  and  gentle  company. 
Though  silent  all,  fair  revelers  they, 
Who  leave  you  not  till  break  of  day  ! 
Go,  ye  who  would  not  daylight  see; 
But  not  to-night  a  bed  for  me  ! 
For  I've  been  born,  and  I've  been  wed, 
And  all  man's  troubles  come  of  bed  ! '  " 


194  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

Here  Giddings  sank  down  in  his  chair  and  began 
weeping. 

"The  divinest  attribute  of  poetry,"  said  he,  "is 
that  of  bringing  tears.  Let  me  weep  awhile,  fel 
lows,  and  then  I'll  give  you  the  last  stanza.  Last 
stanza's  the  best — 

And  in  the  midst  of  his  critique  he  went  to  sleep, 
thereby  breaking  his  rule  adopted  in  ' '  Dum  Vivemus 
Vigilemus." 

"Is  he  this  way  often?"  said  I  to  Cornish,  as  we 
went  down  to  meet  Jim  and  the  bankers. 

"Pretty  often,"  said  Cornish.  "I  don't  know  how 
I'd  amuse  my  evenings  if  it  weren't  for  Giddings. 
He's  too  far  gone  to-night,  though,  to  be  entertaining. 
Gets  worse,  I  think,  as  the  wedding-day  approaches. 
Trying  to  drown  his  apprehensions,  I  suspect. 
Funny  fellow,  Giddings.  But  he's  all  right  from 
noon  to  nine  P.M." 

"I  think  we'll  have  to  organize  a  dipsomaniacs' 
hospital  for  our  crowd,"  said  I,  "  if  things  keep  going 
on  as  they  are  tending  now!  I  didn't  think  Giddings 
was  so  many  kinds  of  an  ass ! ' ' 

My  complainings  were  cut  short  by  our  entrance 
into  the  presence  of  Mr.  Elkins  and  the  New  Eng 
land  bankers.  I  asked  to  be  excused  from  partaking 
of  the  refreshments  which  were  served.  I  had  seen 
and  heard  enough  to  spoil  my  appetite.  I  was  agree 
ably  surprised  to  find  that  their  independent  investi 
gations  of  conditions  in  Lattimore  had  convinced 
them  of  the  safety  of  their  investments.  Really, 
they  said,  were  it  not  for  the  pleasure  of  meeting  us 
here  at  our  home,  they  should  feel  that  the  time  and 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  195 

expense  of  looking  us  up  were  wasted.  But,  hand 
ling,  as  they  did,  the  moneys  of  estates  and  numerous 
savings  accounts,  their  customers  were  of  a  class  in 
whom  timidity  and  nervousness  reach  their  maximum, 
and  they  were  obliged  to  keep  themselves  in  position 
to  give  assurances  as  to  the  safety  of  their  invest 
ments  from  their  personal  investigations. 

Mr.  Hinckley,  who  was  with  us,  assured  them  that 
his  life  as  a  banker  enabled  him  fully  to  realize  the 
necessity  of  their  carefulness,  which  we,  for  our 
own  parts,  were  pleased  to  know  existed.  We  were 
only  too  glad  to  exhibit  our  books  to  them,  make  a 
complete  showing  as  to  our  condition  generally,  and 
even  take  them  to  see  each  individual  piece  of  prop 
erty  covered  by  our  paper.  Mr.  Hinckley  went  with 
them  to  their  hotel,  having  proposed  enough  work 
in  the  way  of  investigation  to  keep  them  with  us 
for  several  months.  They  were  to  leave  on  the  even 
ing  of  the  next  day. 

"But,"  said  Jim,  as  we  put  on  our  overcoats  to 
go  home,  "it  shows  our  good  will,  you  see." 

At  that  moment  the  steward,  with  an  anxious 
look,  asked  Mr.  Elkins  for  a  word  in  private. 

"Ask  Mr.  Barslow  if  he  will  kindly  step  over 
here,"  I  heard  Jim  say;  and  I  joined  them  at 
once. 

"I  was  just  saying,  sir,  to  Mr.  Elkins,"  said  the 
steward,  "that  ordinarily  I'd  not  think  of  mention 
ing  such  a  thing  as  a  gentleman's  being  indisposed 
but  should  see  that  he  was  cared  for  here.  But  Mr. 
Trescott  being  in  such  a  state,  I  felt  it  was  a  case 
for  his  friends  or  the  hospital.  He's  been — a — seeing 


196  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

things  this  afternoon;  and  while  he's  better  now  in 
that  regard,  his — 

"Have  a  closed  carriage  brought  at  once,"  said 
Mr.  Elkins.  "Al,  you'd  better  go  up  to  the  house, 
and  let  them  know  we're  coming.  I'll  take  him 
home!" 

I  shrank  from  the  meeting  with  Mrs.  Trescott 
and  Josie,  more,  I  think,  than  if  it  had  been  Bill's 
death  which  I  was  to  announce.  As  I  approached 
the  house,  I  got  from  it,  somehow,  the  impression 
that  it  was  a  place  of  night-long  watchfulness; 
and  I  was  not  surprised  by  the  fact  that  before  I 
had  time  to  ring  or  knock  at  the  door  Mrs.  Trescott 
herself  opened  it,  with  an  expression  on  her  face 
which  spoke  of  long  vigils,  and  of  fear  passing  on  to 
certainty.  She  peered  past  me  for  an  expected 
Something  on  the  street.  Her  leisure  and  its  new 
habits  had  assimilated  her  in  dress  and  make-up  to 
the  women  of  the  wealthier  sort  in  the  city ;  but  there 
was  an  immensity  of  trouble  in  the  agonized  eye 
and  the  pitiful  droop  of  her  mouth,  which  I  should 
have  rejoiced  to  see  exchanged  again  for  the  ill- 
groomed  exterior  and  the  old  fret  of  the  farm.  Her 
first  question  ignored  all  reference  to  the  things 
leading  to  my  being  there,  "in  the  dead  vast  and 
middle  of  the  night,"  but  went  past  me  to  the  core 
of  her  trouble,  as  her  eye  had  gone  on  from  me  to 
the  street,  in  the  search  for  the  thing  she  dreaded. 

"Where  is  he,  Mr.  Barslow?"  said  she,  in  a  hush 
ing  whisper;  "where  is  he?" 

"He  is  a  little  sick,"  said  I,  "and  Mr.  Elkins  is 
bringing  him  home.  I  came  on  to  tell  you." 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  197 

"Then  he  is  not —  '  she  went  on,  still  in  that 
hushed  voice,  and  searching  me  with  her  gaze. 

"  No,  I  assure  you! "  I  answered.  "  He  is  in  no  im 
mediate  danger,  even." 

Josie  came  quietly  forward  from  the  dusk  of  the 
room  beyond,  where  I  saw  she  had  been  listening, 
reminding  me,  in  spite  of  the  incongruity  of  the 
idea,  of  that  time  when  she  emerged  from  the  ob 
scurity  of  her  garden,  and  stood  at  the  foot  of  the 
windmill  tower,  leaning  on  her  father's  arm,  her 
hands  filled  with  petunias,  the  night  we  first  visited 
the  Trescott  farm.  And  then  my  mind  ran  back  to 
that  other  night  when  she  had  thrown  herself  into 
his  arms  and  begged  him  to  take  her  away;  and  he 
had  said,  "W'y,  yes,  little  gal,  of  course  I'll  take 
yeh  away,  if  yeh  don't  like  it  here!"  I  think  that  I, 
perhaps,  was  more  nearly  able  than  any  one  else  in 
the  world  beside  herself  to  gauge  her  grief  at  this 
long  death  in  which  she  was  losing  him,  and  he  him 
self. 

She  took  my  hand,  pressed  it  silently,  and  began 
caressing  her  mother  and  whispering  to  her  things 
which  I  could  not  hear.  Mrs.  Trescott  sat  upon  a 
sort  of  divan,  shaking  with  terrible,  soundless  sobs, 
and  clasping  and  unclasping  her  hands,  but  making 
no  other  gesture.  I  stood  helpless  at  the  hidden 
abyss  of  woe  so  suddenly  uncovered  before  me  and 
until  this  very  moment  screened  by  the  conven 
tions  which  keep  our  souls  apart  like  prisoners  in 
the  cells  in  some  great  prison.  These  two  women 
had  been  bearing  this  for  a  long  time,  and  we,  their 
nearest  friends,  had  stood  aloof  from  them.  As  I 


198  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

stood  thinking  of  this,  the  carriage-wheels  ground 
upon  the  pavement  in  the  porte  cochere;  and  a 
moment  later  Jim  came  in,  his  face  graver  than  I 
had  ever  seen  it.  He  sat  down  by  Mrs.  Trescott, 
and  gently  took  one  of  her  hands. 

"Dr.  Aylesbury  has  given  him  a  morphia  injec 
tion,"  said  he,  "and  he  is  sound  asleep.  The  doctor 
thinks  it  best  for  us  to  carry  him  right  to  his  room. 
There  is  a  man  here  from  the  hospital,  who  will  stay 
and  nurse  him;  and  the  doctor  came,  too." 

Mrs.  Trescott  started  up,  saying  that  she  must 
arrange  his  room.  Soon  the  four  of  us  had  placed 
him  in  bed,  where  he  lay,  puffy  and  purple,  with  a 
sort  of  pasty  pallor  overspreading  his  face.  His 
limbs  occasionally  jerked  spasmodically;  but  other 
wise  he  was  still  under  the  spell  of  the  opiate.  His 
wife,  now  that  there  was  something  definite  to  do, 
was  self-possessed  and  efficient,  taking  the  physi 
cian's  instructions  with  ready  apprehension.  The  fact 
that  Bill  had  now  assumed  the  character  of  a  patient 
rather  than  that  of  a  portent  seemed  to  make  the 
trouble,  somehow,  more  normal  and  endurable.  The 
wife  and  daughter  insisted  upon  assuming  the  care 
of  him,  but  assented  to  the  nurse's  remaining  as  a 
help  in  emergencies.  It  was  nearing  dawn  when  I 
took  my  leave.  As  I  approached  the  door,  I  saw 
Jim  and  Josie  in  the  hall,  and  heard  him  making 
some  last  tenders  of  aid  and  comfort  before  his 
departure.  He  put  out  his  hand,  and  she  clasped 
it  in  both  of  hers. 

"I  want  to  thank  you,"  said  she,  "for  what  you 
have  done." 


Our  Halcyon  Days.  199 

"I  have  done  nothing,"  he  replied.  "It  is  what  I 
wish  to  do  that  I  want  you  to  think  of.  I  do  not 
know  whether  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  forgive  myself — 

"No,  no!"  said  she.  "You  must  not  talk — you 
must  not  allow  yourself  to  feel  in  that  way.  It  is 
unjust — to  yourself  and  to — me — for  you  to  feel 
so!" 

I  advanced  to  them,  but  she  still  stood  looking  into 
his  face  and  holding  his  hand  clasped  in  hers.  There 
was  something  of  appeal,  of  an  effort  to  express 
more  than  the  words  said,  in  her  look  and  attitude. 
He  answered  her  regard  by  a  gaze  so  pathetically 
wistful  that  she  averted  her  face,  pressed  his  hand, 
and  turned  to  me. 

"Good-night  to  you  both,  and  thank  you  both,  a 
thousand  times!"  said  she. 

"I  wonder  if  old  Shep's  relations  and  friends," 
said  Jim,  as  we  stood  under  the  arc  light  in  front  of 
my  house,  "ever  came  to  forgive  the  people  who 
took  him  away  from  his  flocks  and  herds." 

"After  what  I've  seen  in  the  last  few  minutes," 
said  I,  "I  haven't  the  lea  t  doubt  of  it." 

"Al,"  said  he,  "these  be  troublous  times,  but  if  I 
believed  all  that  what  you  say  implies,  I'd  go  home 
happy,  if  not  jolly.  And  I  almost  believe  you're 
right." 

"Well,"  said  I,  assuming  for  once  the  rule  of  the 
mentor,  "I  think  that  you  are  foolish  to  worry 
about  it.  We  have  enough  actual,  well-defined, 
surveyed  and  platted  grief  on  our  hands,  without 
any  mooning  about  hunting  for  the  speculative 


2OO  Our  Halcyon  Days. 

variety.      Go  home,  sleep,  and  bring  down  a  clear 
brain  for  to-morrow's  business." 

"To-day's,"  said  he  gaily.  "Tear  off  yesterday's 
leaf  from  the  calendar,  Al.  For,  look!  the  morn, 
dressed  as  usual,  'walks  o'er  the  dew  of  yon  high 
eastern  hill.'" 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
•Relating  to  tbe  Disposition  ot  tbe  Captives. 

IT  was  not  later  than  the  next  day  but  one,  that  I 
met  Giddings,  alert,  ingratiating,  and  natty  as  ever. 

"When  am  I  to  have  the  third  stanza?"  I  inquired, 
"the  one  that's  'the  besht  of  all." 

This  question  he  seemed  to  take  as  a  rebuke; 
for  he  reddened,  while  he  tried  to  laugh. 

"Barslow,"  said  he,  "there  isn't  any  use  in  our 
discussing  this  thing.  You  couldn't  understand  it. 
A  man  like  you,  who  can  calculate  to  a  hair  just  how 
far  he  is  going  and  just  where  to  turn  back,  and — 
Oh,  damn!  There's  no  use!" 

I  sympathize  with  Giddings,  at  this  present  moment, 
in  his  despair  of  making  people  understand;  for  I 
doubt,  sometimes,  whether  it  is  possible  for  me  to 
make  the  reader  understand  the  conditions  with  us 
in  Lattimore  at  the  time  when  poor  Trescott  lay 
there  in  his  fine  house,  fighting  for  life,  and  for  many 
things  more  important,  and  while  the  wedding 
preparations  were  going  forward  at  the  General's 
house. 

To  the  steady-going,  stationary,  passionless  com 
munity  these  conditions  approach  the  incomprehen- 


2O2    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

sible.  No  one  seemed  to  doubt  the  city's  future 
now.  Sometimes  the  abnormal  basis  upon  which 
our  g  eat  new  industries  had  been  established  struck 
the  stranger  with  distrust,  if  he  happened  to  have 
the  insight  to  notice  it;  but  the  concerns  were  there 
most  undeniably,  and  had  shifted  population  in  their 
coming,  and  were  turning  out  products  for  the 
markets  of  the  world. 

That  they  had  been  evolved  magically,  and  set  in 
operation,  not  by  any  slow  process  of  meeting  a  felt 
want,  but  for  this  sole  purpose  of  shifting  popula 
tion,  might  be,  and  undoubtedly  was,  unusual;  but 
given  the  natural  facilities  for  carrying  the  business 
on,  and  how  did  this  forced  genesis  adversely  affect 
their  prospects? 

I,  for  one,  could  see  no  reason  for  apprehension. 
Yet  when  the  story  of  Trescott's  maudlin  plunging 
came  to  our  ears,  and  the  effect  of  his  possible  failure 
received  consideration,  or  I  thought  of  the  business 
explosion  which  would  follow  any  open  breach 
between  Jim  and  Cornish  (though  this  seemed  too 
remote  for  serious  consideration),  I  began  to  ponder 
on  the  enormously  complex  system  of  credits  we 
had  built  up. 

Besides  the  regular  line  of  bonds  and  mortgages 
growing  out  of  debts  due  us  on  our  real-estate  sales, 
and  against  which  we  had  issued  the  debentures  and 
the  guaranteed  rediscounts  of  the  Grain  Belt  Trust 
Company,  the  factories,  stock  yards,  terminals, 
street-car  system,  and  most  of  our  other  properties 
were  pretty  heavily  bonded.  Some  of  them  were 
temporarily  unproductive,  and  funds  had  from  time 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    203 

to  time  to  be  provided,  from  sources  other  than  their 
own  earnings,  for  the  payment  of  their  interest- 
charges.  On  the  whole,  however,  we  had  been  able 
to  carry  the  entire  line  forward  from  position  to 
position  with  such  success  that  the  people  were 
kept  in  a  fever,  and  accessions  to  our  population 
kept  pouring  in  which,  of  their  own  force,  added 
fuel  to  the  fire  of  expectancy. 

This  one  thing  began  to  make  me  uneasy — there 
was  no  place  to  stop.  A  failure  among  us  would 
quench  this  expectancy,  and  values  would  no  longer 
increase.  And  everything  was  organized  on  the 
basis  of  the  continued  crescendo.  That  was  the 
reason  why  every  uplift  in  prices  had  been  followed 
by  a  new  and  strenuous  effort  on  our  part  to  hoist 
them  still  higher.  For  that  reason,  we,  who  had 
become  richer  than  we  had  ever  hoped  to  be,  kept 
toiling  on  to  rear  to  greater  and  greater  heights  an 
edifice  which  the  eternal  forces  of  nature  itself 
clutched,  to  drag  down. 

I  was  the  first  to  suggest  this  feature  in  conference. 
The  Trescott  scare  had  made  me  more  thoughtful. 
True,  outwardly  things  were  more  than  ever  boom 
ing.  The  very  signs  on  the  streets  spoke  of  the 
boom.  It  was  "Lumber,  Coal,  and  Real  Estate"; 
"Burbank's  Livery,  Feed,  and  Sale  Stable.  Office  of 
Burbank  Realty  Co.";  or  "Thronson  &  Larson, 
Grocers.  Choice  Lots  in  Thronson's  Addition." 
Even  Giddings  had  platted  the  "Herald  Addition," 
and  was  offering  a  choice  quarter-block  as  a  prize  to 
the  person  who  could  guess  nearest  to  the  average 
monthly  increase  in  values  in  the  addition,  as  shown 


204    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

by  the  record  of  sales.  Real  estate  appeared  as  a 
part  of  the  business  of  hardware  stores  and  milliners' 
shops,  so  that  one  was  constantly  reminded  of  the 
heterogeneous  announcements  on  the  signboard  of 
Mr.  Wegg.  But  while  all  this  went  on,  and  trans 
actions  "in  dirt"  were  larger  than  ever,  one  could 
see  indications  that  there  was  in  them  a  larger  and 
larger  element  of  credit,  and  less  and  less  cash.  So 
one  day,  at  a  syndicate  conference,  I  sought  to  ease 
my  mind  by  asking  where  this  thing  was  to  stop,  and 
when  we  could  hope  for  a  time  when  the  town  would 
not  have  to  be  held  up  by  main  strength. 

"Why,  that's  a  very  remarkable  question!"  said 
Mr.  Hinckley.  "We  surely  haven't  reached  the  point 
where  we  can  think  of  stopping.  Why,  with  the 
history  before  us  of  the  cities  of  America  which, 
without  half  our  natural  advantages,  have  grown  to 
so  many  times  the  size  of  this,  I'm  surprised  that 
such  a  thing  should  be  thought  of!  Just  think  of 
what  Chicago  was  in  '54  when  I  came  through.  A 
village  without  a  harbor,  built  along  the  ditches  of  a 
frog-pond!  And  see  it  now;  see  it  now!" 

There  was  a  little  quiver  in  Mr.  Hinckley's  voice, 
a  little  infirmity  of  his  chin,  which  told  of  advancing 
years.  His  ideas  were  becoming  more  fixed.  It  was 
plain  that  the  notion  of  Lattimore's  continued  and 
uninterrupted  progress  was  one  to  which  he  would 
cling  with  the  mild  and  unreasoning  stubbornness 
of  gentlemanly  senility.  But  Cornish  welcomed  the 
discussion  with  something  like  eagerness. 

"I'm  glad  the  matter  has  come  up,"  said  he. 
"We've  had  a  few  good  years  here;  but,  in  the 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    205 

nature  of  things,  won't  the  time  come  when  things 
will  be — slower?  We've  got  our  first  plans  pretty 
well  worked  out.  The  mills,  factories,  and  live-stock 
industries  are  supporting  population,  and  making 
tonnage  which  the  railroad  is  carrying.  But  what 
next?  We  can't  expect  to  build  any  more  railroads 
soon.  No  line  of  less  than  five  hundred  miles  will 
do  any  good,  strategically  speaking,  and  sending 
out  stubs  just  to  annex  territory  for  our  shippers  is 
too  slow  and  expensive  business  for  this  crowd. 
Things  are  booming  along  now;  but  the  Eastern 
banks  are  getting  finicky  about  paper,  and — I  think 
things  are  going  to  be — slower — and  that  we  ought  to 
act  accordingly." 

There  was  a  long  silence,  broken  only  by  a  dry 
laugh  from  Hinckley,  and  the  remark  that  Barslow 
and  Cornish  must  be  getting  dyspeptic  from  high 
living. 

"Well,"  said  Elkins  at  last,  ignoring  Hinckley  and 
facing  Cornish,  "get  down  to  brass  nails!  What 
policy  would  you  adopt?" 

"Oh,  our  present  policy  is  all  right,"  answered  he 
of  the  Van  Dyke  beard — 

"Yes,  yes!"  interjected  Hinckley.  "My  view 
exactly.  A  wonderfully  successful  policy!" 

" — and,"  Cornish  continued,  "I  would  only  sug 
gest  that  we  cease  spreading  out — not  cease  talking 
it,  but  only  just  sort  of  stop  doing  it — and  begin  to 
realize  more  rapidly  on  our  holdings.  Not  so  as  to 
break  the  market,  you  understand;  but  so  as  to 
keep  the  demand  fairly  well  satisfied." 

Mr.   Elkins  was  slow  in  replying,   and  when  the 


206    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

reply  came  it  was  of  the  sort  which  does  not 
answer. 

"A  most  important,  not  to  say  momentous  ques 
tion,"  said  he.  "  Let's  figure  the  thing  over  and  take 
it  up  again  soon.  We'll  not  begin  to  disagree  at  this 
late  day.  Mr.  Hinckley  has  warned  us  that  he  has 
an  engagement  in  thirty  minutes.  It  seems  to  me 
we  ought  to  dispose  of  the  matter  of  the  appropria 
tion  for  the  interest  on  those  Belt  Lines  bonds. 
Wade's  mash  on  'Atkins,  Corning  &  Co.'  won't  last 
long  in  the  face  of  a  default." 

Mr.  Hinckley  staid  his  thirty  minutes  and  with 
drew.  Mr.  Cornish  went  to  the  telephone  and 
ordered  his  dog-cart. 

"Immediately,"  he  instructed,  "over  here  at  the 
Grain  Belt  Trust  Building." 

"Make  it  in  half  an  hour,  can't  you,  Cornish?" 
said  Jim.  "There  are  some  more  things  we  ought 
to  go  over." 

"Say!"  shouted  Cornish  into  the  transmitter. 
"Make  that  in  half  an  hour  instead  of  at  once." 

He  hung  up  the  telephone,  and  turned  to  Elkins 
inquiringly.  Jim  was  walking  up  and  down  on  the 
rug,  his  hands  clasped  behind  him. 

"  Since  we've  spread  out  into  that  string  of  banks," 
said  he,  still  keeping  up  his  walk,  "and  made  Mr. 
Hinckley  the  president  of  each  of  'em,  he's  reverting 
to  his  old  banker's  timidity.  Which  consists,  in  all 
cases,  in  an  aversion  to  any  change  in  conditions. 
To  suggest  any  change,  even  from  an  old,  dangerous 
policy  to  a  new  safe  one,  startles  a  'conservative' 
banker.  If  we  had  gone  on  a  little  longer  with  our 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    207 

talk  about  shutting  off  steam  and  taking  the  nigger 
off  the  safety-valve,  you'd  have  seen  him  scared 
into  a  numbness.  But,  now  that  the  question  has 
been  brought  up,  let's  talk  it  over.  What's  your 
notion  about  it,  anyhow,  Al?" 

"I'm  seeking  light,"  said  I.  "The  people  are 
rushing  in,  and  the  town's  doing  splendidly.  But 
prices,  there's  no  denying  it,  are  beginning  to  sort  of 
strangle  things.  They  prevent  doing,  any  more, 
what  we  did  at  first.  Kreuger  Brothers'  failure 
yesterday  was  small ;  but  it's  a  clear  case  of  a  retailer's 
being  eaten  up  with  fixed  charges — or  so  Macdonald 
told  me  this  morning;  and  I  know  that  frontage  on 
Main  Street  is  demanding  fully  as  much  as  the 
traffic  will  bear.  And  then  our  fright  over  Tres- 
cott's  gambling  gave  me  some  bad  dreams  over  our 
securities.  It  has  bothered  me  to  see  how  to  adjust 
our  affairs  to  a  stationary  condition  of  things;  that's 
all." 

"Of  course,"  said  Cornish,  "we  must  keep  boosting. 
Fortunately  society  here  is  now  thoroughly  organ 
ized  on  the  principle  of  whooping  it  up  for  Lattimore. 
I  could  get  up  a  successful  lynching-party  any  time 
to  attend  to  the  case  of  any  miscreant  who  should 
suggest  that  property  is  too  high,  or  rents  unreason 
able,  or  anything  but  a  steady  up-grade  before  us. 
But  I  think  we  ought  to  stop  buying — except  among 
ourselves,  and  keep  the  transfers  from  falling  off — 
and  begin  salting  down." 

"If  you  can  suggest  any  way  to  do  that,  and  still 
take  care  of  our  paper,"  said  Jim,  "I  shall  be  with 
you." 


208    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

"I've  never  anticipated,"  said  Cornish,  "that 
such  a  mass  of  business  could  be  carried  through 
without  some  losses.  Investors  can't  expect  it." 

"The  first  loss  in  the  East  through  our  paper," 
said  Jim,  "means  a  taking  up  of  the  Grain  Belt 
securities  everywhere,  and  no  market  for  more. 
And  you  know  what  that  spells." 

"It  mustn't  be  allowed  to  happen — yet  awhile," 
answered  Cornish.  "As  I  just  now  said,  we  must 
keep  on  boosting." 

"You  know  where  the  Grain  Belt  debentures  and 
other  obligations  are  mostly  held,  of  course?"  asked 
Mr.  Elkins. 

"When  a  bond  or  mortgage  is  sold,"  was  the  an 
swer,  "my  interest  in  it  ceases.  I  conclusively 
presume  that  the  purchaser  himself  personally 
looked  to  the  security,  or  accepted  the  guaranty  of 
the  negotiating  trust  company.  Caveat  emptor  is 
my  rule." 

Mr.  Elkins  looked  out  of  the  widow,  as  if  he  had 
forgotten  us. 

"We  should  push  the  sale  of  the  Lattimore  & 
Great  Western,"  said  he,  "and  the  Belt  Line  System." 

"I  concur,"  said  Cornish.  "Our  interest  in  those 
properties  is  a  two-million-dollar  cash  item." 

"It  wouldn't  be  two  million  cents,"  said  Jim, 
"if  our  friends  on  Wall  Street  could  hear  this  talk. 
They'd  wait  to  buy  at  receiver's  sale  after  some 
Black  Friday.  Of  course,  that's  what  Pendleton 
and  Wade  have  been  counting  on  from  the  first." 

"You  ought  to  see  Halliday  and  Pendleton  at 
once,"  said  I. 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    209 

"Yes,  I  think  so,  too,"  he  rejoined.  " Pendleton'll 
pay  us  more  than  our  price,  rather  than  see  the 
Halliday  system  get  the  properties.  They're  deep 
ones;  but  we  ought  to  be  able  to  play  them  off 
against  each  other,  so  long  as  we  can  keep  strong 
at  home.  I'll  begin  the  flirtation  at  once." 

Cornish,  assuming  that  Jim  had  fully  concurred 
in  his  views,  bade  us  a  pleasant  good-day,  and  went 
out. 

"My  boy,"  said  Jim,  "cheer  up.  If  gloom  takes 
hold  of  you  like  this  while  we're  still  running  before  a 
favoring  wind,  it'll  bother  you  to  keep  feeling  worse 
and  worse,  as  you  ought,  as  we  approach  the  real 
thing.  Cheer  up!" 

"Oh,  I'm  all  right!"  said  I.  "I  was  just  trying  to 
make  out  Cornish's  position." 

"Let's  make  out  our  own,"  he  replied,  "  that's  the 
first  thing.  Bear  in  mind  that  this  is  a  buccaneer 
ing  proposition,  and  you're  first  mate:  remember? 
Well,  Al,  we've  had  the  merriest  cruise  in  the  books. 
If  any  crew  ever  had  doubloons  to  throw  to  the  birds, 
we've  had  'em.  But,  you  know,  we  always  draw  the 
line  somewhere,  and  I'm  about  to  ask  you  to  join 
me  in  drawing  the  line,  and  see  just  what  moral  level 
piracy  has  risen  or  sunk  to." 

He  still  walked  back  and  forth,  and,  as  he  spoke 
of  drawing  the  line,  he  drew  an  imaginary  one  with 
his  fingers  on  the  green  baize  of  the  flat-topped 
desk. 

"You  remember  what  those  fellows,  Dorr  and 
Wickersham,  said  the  other  night,  about  having 
invested  the  funds  of  estates,  and  savings  accounts, 


2 1  o    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

in  our  obligations?"  he  went  on.  "But  I  never 
told  you  what  Wickersham  said  privately  to  me. 
The  infernal  fool  has  more  of  our  paper  than  his 
bank's  whole  capital  stock,  with  the  surplus  added, 
amounts  to!  And  he  calls  himself  a  'conservative 
New  England  banker'!  It  wouldn't  be  so  bad  if 
the  states  back  East  weren't  infested  with  the  same 
sort  of  idiots — I've  had  Hinckley  make  me  a  report 
on  it  since  that  night.  It  means  that  women  and 
children  and  sweaty  breadwinners  have  furnished 
the  money  for  all  these  things  we're  so  proud  of 
having  built,  including  the  Mt.  Desert  cottages  and 
the  Wyoming  hunting-lodge.  It  means  that  we've 
got  to  be  able  to  read  our  book  of  the  Black  Art 
backwards  as  well  as  forwards,  or  the  Powers  we've 
conjured  up  will  tear  piecemeal  both  them  and  us. 
God!  it  makes  me  crawl  to  think  of  what  would 
happen!" 

He  sat  down  on  the  flat -topped  desk,  and  I  saw 
the  beaded  pallor  of  a  fixed  and  digested  anxiety 
on  his  brow.  He  went  on,  in  a  lighter  way: 

"These  poor  people,  scattered  from  the  Missouri 
to  the  Atlantic,  are  our  prisoners,  Al.  I  think  Cor 
nish  is  ready  to  make  them  walk  the  plank.  But, 
Al,  you  know,  in  our  bloodiest  days,  down  on  the 
Spanish  Main,  we  used  to  spare  the  women  and 
children!  What  do  you  say  now,  Al?" 

The  way  in  which  he  repeated  the  old  nickname 
had  an  irresistible  appeal  in  it ;  but  I  hope  no  appeal 
was  needed.  I  said,  and  said  truly,  that  I  should 
never  consent  to  any  policy  which  was  not  mindful  of 
the  interests  of  which  he  spoke;  and  that  I  knew 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    211 

Hinckley  would  be  with  us.  So,  if  Cornish  took 
any  other  view,  there  would  be  three  to  one  against 
him. 

"I  knew  you'd  be  with  me,"  he  continued.  "It 
would  have  been  a  sure-enough  case  of  et  tu,  Brute,  if 
you  hadn't  been.  But  don't  let  yourself  think  for 
a  minute  that  we  can't  fight  this  thing  to  a  finish 
and  come  off  more  than  conquerors.  We'll  look  back 
at  this  talk  some  time,  and  laugh  at  our  fears.  The 
troublous  times  that  come  every  so  often  are  nearer 
than  they  were  five  years  ago,  but  they're  some 
ways  off  yet,  and  forewarned  is  insured." 

"But  the  hard  times  always  catch  people  un 
awares,"  said  I. 

"They  do,"  he  admitted,  "but  they  never  tried 
to  stalk  a  covey  of  boom  specialists  before.  .  .  .  You 
remember  all  that  rot  I  used  to  talk  about  the  mind- 
force  method,  and  psychological  booms?  We've 
been  false  to  that  theory,  by  coming  to  believe  so 
implicitly  in  our  own  preaching.  Why,  Al,  this 
work  we've  begun  here  has  got  to  go  on!  It  must  go 
on!  There  mustn't  be  any  collapse  or  failure.  When 
the  hard  times  come,  we  must  be  prepared  to  go 
right  on  through,  cutting  a  little  narrower  swath, 
but  cutting  all  the  same.  Stand  by  the  guns  with 
me,  and,  in  spite  of  all,  we'll  win,  and  save  Latti- 
more — and  spare  the  captives,  too!" 

There  was  the  fire  of  unconquerable  resolution  in 
his  eye,  and  a  resonance  in  his  voice  that  thrilled 
me.  After  all  he  had  done,  after  the  victories  we 
had  won  under  his  leadership,  the  admiration  and 
love  I  felt  for  him  rose  to  the  idolatry  of  a  soldier  for 


212    The  Disposition  of  the  Captives. 

his  general,  as  I  saw  him  stiffening  his  limbs,  knotting 
his  muscles,  and,  with  teeth  set  and  nostrils  dilated, 
rising  to  the  load  which  seemed  falling  on  him 
alone. 

"I'll  make  the  turn  with  these  railroad  properties," 
he  went  on.  "We  must  make  Pendleton  and  Halli- 
day  bid  each  other  up  to  our  figure.  And  there'll  be 
no  'salting  down'  done,  either — yet  awhile.  I 
hope  things  won't  shrink  too  much  in  the  washing; 
but  the  real-estate  hot  air  of  the  past  few  years 
must  cause  some  trouble  when  the  payments  de 
ferred  begin  to  make  the  heart  sick.  The  Trust 
Company  will  be  called  on  to  make  good  some  of  its 
guaranties — and  must  do  it.  The  banks  must  be 
kept  strong;  and  with  two  millions  to  sweeten  the 
pot  we  shall  be  with  'em  to  the  finish.  Why,  they 
can't  beat  us!  And  don't  forget  that  right  now  is 
the  most  prosperous  time  Lattimore  ever  saw;  and 
put  on  a  look  that  will  corroborate  the  statement 
when  you  go  out  of  here!" 

"Bravo,  bravo!"  said  a  voice  from  near  the  door. 
"I  don't  understand  any  of  it,  but  the  speech  sounded 
awfully  telling!  Where's  papa?" 

It  was  Antonia,  who  had  come  in  unobserved.  She 
wore  a  felt  hat  with  one  little  feather  on  it,  driving- 
gloves,  and  a  dark  cloth  dress.  She  stood,  rosy 
with  driving,  her  blonde  curls  clustering  in  airy 
confusion  about  her  forehead,  a  tailor-gowned 
Brunhilde. 

"Why,  hello,  Antonia!"  said  Jim.  "He  went 
away  some  time  ago.  Wasn't  that  a  corking  good 
speech?  Ah!  You  never  know  the  value  of  an  old 


The  Disposition  of  the  Captives.    213 

friend  until  you  use  him  as  audience  at  the  dress 
rehearsal  of  a  speech!  Pacers  or  trotters?" 

"Pacers,"  said  she,  "Storm  and  The  Friar." 

"If  you'll  let  me  drive,"  he  stipulated,  "I'd  like 
to  go  home  with  you." 

"Nobody  but  myself,"  said  she,  "ever  drives  this 
team.  You'd  spoil  The  Friar's  temper  with  that 
unyielding  wrist  of  yours;  but  if  you  are  good,  you 
may  hold  the  ends  of  the  lines,  and  say  'Dap!' 
occasionally." 

And  down  to  the  street  we  went  together,  our 
cares  dismissed.  Jim  handed  Antonia  into  the  trap, 
and  they  spun  away  toward  Lynhurst,  apparently 
the  happiest  people  in  Lattimore. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CJoing  Bwag  of  ILaura  and  Clifford,  ano  tbe 
Departure  of  flbr.  {Frescott. 

"THET  little  quirly  thing  there,"  said  Mr.  Trescott, 
spreading  a  map  out  on  my  library  table  and  point 
ing  with  his  trembling  and  knobby  forefinger,  "is 
Wolf  Nose  Crick.  It  runs  into  the  Cheyenne,  down 
about  there,  an'  's  got  worlds  o'  water  fer  any  sized 
herds,  an'  carries  yeh  back  from  the  river  fer  twenty- 
five  miles.  There's  a  big  spring  at  the  head  of  it, 
where  the  ranch  buildin's  is;  an'  there's  a  clump  o' 
timber  there — box  elders  an'  cotton  woods,  y'  know. 
Now  see  the  advantage  I'll  have.  Other  herds'll  hev 
to  traipse  back  an'  forth  from  grass  to  water  an'  from 
water  to  grass,  a-runnin'  theirselves  poor;  an'  all 
the  time  I'll  hev  livin'  water  right  in  the  middle  o' 
my  range." 

His  wife  and  daughter  had  carefully  nursed  him 
through  the  fever,  as  Dr.  Aylesbury  called  it,  and 
for  two  weeks  Mr.  Trescott  was  seen  by  no  one  else. 
Then  from  our  windows  Alice  and  I  could  see  him 
about  his  grounds,  at  work  amongst  his  shrubbery, 
or  busying  himself  with  his  horses  and  carriages. 
Josie  had  transformed  herself  into  a  woman  of 
business,  and  every  day  she  went  to  her  father's 

214 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    215 

office,  opened  his  mail,  and  held  business  consulta 
tions.  Whenever  it  was  necessary  for  papers  to  be 
executed,  Josie  went  with  the  lawyer  and  notary 
to  the  Trescott  home  for  the  signing. 

The  Trescott  and  Tolliver  business  brought  her 
into  daily  contact  with  the  Captain.  He  used  to 
open  the  doors  between  their  offices,  and  have  the 
mail  sorted  for  Josie  when  she  came  in.  There  was 
something  of  homage  in  the  manner  in  which  he 
received  her  into  the  office,  and  laid  matters  of  busi 
ness  before  her.  It  was  something  larger  and  more 
expansive  than  can  be  denoted  by  the  word  courtesy 
or  politeness. 

"Captain,"  she  would  say,  with  the  half-amused 
smile  with  which  she  always  rewarded  him,  "here 
is  this  notice  from  the  Grain  Belt  Trust  Company 
about  the  interest  on  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  of 
bonds  which  they  have  advanced  to  us.  Will  you 
please  explain  it?" 

"Sutt'nly,  Madam,  sutt'nly,"  replied  he,  using 
a  form  of  address  which  he  adopted  the  first  time 
she  appeared  as  Bill's  representative  in  the  business, 
and  which  he  never  cheapened  by  use  elsewhere. 
"Those  bonds  ah  debentures,  which — 

"But  what  arc  debentures,  Captain?"  she  in 
quired. 

"Pahdon  me,  my  deah  lady,"  said  he,  "fo'  not 
explaining  that  at  fuhst !  Those  ah  the  debentures  of 
the  Trescott  Development  Company,  fawmed  to 
build  up  Trescott 's  Addition.  We  sold  those  lands 
on  credit,  except  fo'  a  cash  payment  of  one  foath  the 
purchase-price.  This  brought  to  us,  as  you  can  see, 


2i 6   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

Madam,  a  lahge  amount  of  notes,  secured  by  fuhst 
mortgages  on  the  Trescott 's  Addition  properties. 
These  notes  and  mortgages  we  deposited  with  the 
Grain  Belt  Trust  Company,  and  issued  against  them 
the  bonds  of  the  Trescott  Development  Company — 
debentures — and  the  G.  B.  T.  people  floated  these 
bonds  in  the  East  and  elsewhah.  This  interest 
mattah  was  an  ovahsight;  I  should  have  looked 
out  fo'  it,  and  not  put  the  G.  B.  T.  to  the  trouble  of 
advancing  it ;  but  as  we  have  this  mawnin'  on  deposit 
with  them  several  thousand  dollahs  from  the  sale 
of  the  Tolliver's  Subdivision  papah,  the  thing  becomes 
a  mattah  of  no  impo'tance  whatevah!" 

"But,"  went  on  Josie,  "how  shall  we  be  able  to 
pay  the  next  installment  of  interest,  and  the  princi 
pal,  when  it  falls  due?" 

"Amply  provided  foh,  my  deah  Madam,"  said 
the  Captain,  waving  his  arm;  "the  defe'ed  payments 
and  the  interest  on  them  will  create  an  ample  sinking 
fund!" 

"But  if  they  don't?"  she  inquired. 

"That  such  a  contingency  can  possibly  arise, 
Madam,"  said  the  Captain  in  his  most  impressive 
orotund,  and  with  his  hand  thrust  into  the  bosom 
of  his  Prince  Albert  coat,  "is  something  which  my 
loyalty  to  Lattimore,  my  faith  in  my  fellow  citizens, 
my  confidence  in  Mr.  Elkins  and  Mr.  Barslow,  and 
my  regahd  fo'  my  own  honah,  pledged  as  it  is  to 
those  to  whom  I  have  sold  these  properties  on  the 
representations  I  have  made  as  to  the  prospects  of 
the  city,  will  not  puhmit  me  to  admit!" 

This  seemed  to  him  entirely  conclusive,  and  cut 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    217 

off  the  investigation.  Conversation  like  this,  in 
which  Josie  questioned  the  Captain  and  seemed 
ever  convinced  by  his  answers,  gave  her  high  rank 
in  the  Captain's  estimation. 

"Like  most  ladies,"  said  he,  "  Miss  Trescott  is  a 
little  inclined  to  ovah-conservatism ;  but  unlike 
most  people  of  both  sexes,  she  is  quite  able  to  grasp 
the  lahgest  views  when  explained  to  huh,  and  huh 
mental  processes  ah  unerring.  I  have  nevah  failed 
to  make  the  most  complicated  situation  cleah  to 
huh — nevah ! ' ' 

And  all  this  time  Mr.  Trescott  was  safeguarded  at 
home,  looking  after  his  horses,  carriages,  and  grounds, 
and  at  last  permitted  to  come  over  to  our  house  and 
pass  the  evening  with  me  occasionally.  It  was  on 
one  of  these  visits  that  he  spread  out  the  map  on  the 
table  and  explained  to  me  the  advantages  of  his 
ranch  on  Wolf  Nose  Creek.  The  very  thought  of 
the  open  range  and  the  roaming  herds  seemed  to 
strengthen  him. 

"You  talk,"  said  I,  "as  if  it  were  all  settled.  Are 
you  really  going  out  there  ? ' ' 

"Wai,"  said  he,  after  some  hesitation,  "it  kind  o' 
makes  me  feel  good  to  lay  plans  f'r  goin'.  I've  made 
the  deal  with  Aleck  Macdonald  f'r  the  water  front — 
it's  a  good  spec  if  I  never  go  near  it — an'  I  guess  I'll 
send  a  bunch  o'  steers  out  to  please  Josie  an'  her  ma. 
They're  purtendin'  to  be  stuck  on  goin',  an'  I've 
made  the  bargain  to  pacify  'em;  but,  say,  do  you 
know  what  kind  of  a  place  it  is  out  on  one  o'  them 
ranches  ? ' ' 

"In  a  general  way,  yes,"  said  I. 


2i  8   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

" W'l,  a  general  way  wun't  do,"  said  he.  "You've 
got  to  git  right  down  to  p 'ticklers  t'  know  about  it, 
so's  to  know.  It's  seventy-five  miles  from  a  post- 
office  an'  twenty-five  to  the  nearest  house.  How 
would  you  like  to  hev  a  girl  o'  yourn  thet  you'd 
sent  t'  Chicago  an'  New  York  and  the  ol'  country, 
an'  spent  all  colors  o'  money  on  so's  t'  give  her  all 
the  chanst  in  the  world,  go  out  to  a  place  like  that 
to  spend  her  life?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  I,  for  I  was  in  doubt;  "it 
might  be  all  right." 

"You  wouldn't  say  that  if  it  was  up  to  you  to 
decide  the  thing,"  said  he.  "W'y  it  would  mean 
that  this  girl  o'  mine,  that's  fit  for  to  be — wal,  you 
know  Josie — would  hev  to  leave  this  home  we've 
built — that  she's  built — here,  an'  go  out  where 
there  hain't  nobody  to  be  seen  from  week's  end  to 
week's  end  but  cowboys,  an'  once  in  a  while  one  o' 
the  greasy  women  o'  the  dugouts.  Do  you  know 
what  happens  to  the  nicest  girls  when  they  don't 
see  the  right  sort  o'  men — at  all,  y'  know?" 

I  nodded.  I  knew  what  he  meant.  Then  I  shook 
my  head  in  denial  of  the  danger. 

"I  don't  b'lieve  it  nuther,"  said  he;  "but  is  it  any 
cinch,  now?  An'  anyhow,  she'll  be  where  she  wun't 
ever  hear  a  bit  o'  music,  'r  see  a  picter,  'r  see  a  friend. 
She'll  swelter  in  the  burnin'  sun  an'  parch  in  the  hot 
winds  in  the  summer,  an'  in  the  winter  she'll  be  shet 
in  by  blizzards  an'  cold  weather.  She'll  see  nothin' 
but  kioats,  prairie-dogs,  sage-brush,  an'  cactus.  An' 
what  fer!  Jest  for  nothin'  but  me!  To  git  me 
away  from  things  she's  afraid've  got  more  of  a  pull 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    219 

with  me  than  what  she's  got.  An'  I  say,  by  the 
livin'  Lord,  I'll  go  under  before  I'll  give  up,  an' 
say  I've  got  as  fur  down  as  that!" 

It  is  something  rending  and  tearing  to  a  man  like 
Bill,  totally  unaccustomed  to  the  expression  of 
sentiment,  to  give  utterance  to  such  depths  of 
feeling.  Weak  and  trembling  as  he  was,  the  sight 
of  his  agitation  was  painful.  I  hastened  to  say  to 
him  that  I  hoped  there  was  no  necessity  for  such  a 
step  as  the  one  he  so  strongly  deprecated. 

"I  d' know,"  said  he  dubiously.  "I  thought  one 
while  that  I'd  never  want  to  go  near  town,  'r 
touch  the  stuff  agin.  But  I'll  tell  yeh  something 
that  happened  yisterday!" 

He  drew  up  his  chair  and  looked  behind  him  like  a 
child  preparing  to  relate  some  fearsome  tale  of 
goblin  or  fiend,  and  went  on: 

"  Josie  had  the  team  hitched  up  to  go  out  ridin',  an' 
I  druv  around  the  block  to  git  to  the  front  step.  An' 
somethin'  seemed  to  pull  the  nigh  line  when  I  got  to 
the  cawner!  It  wa'n't  that  I  wanted  to  go — and 
don't  you  say  anything  about  this  thing,  Mr.  Bars- 
low  ;  but  somethin'  seemed  to  pull  the  nigh  line  an' 
turn  me  toward  Main  Street;  an'  fust  thing  I  knew, 
I  was  a-drivin'  hell-bent  for  O'Brien's  place!  Some- 
thin'  was  a-whisperin'  to  me,  'Go  down  an'  see  the 
boys,  an'  show  'em  that  yeh  can  drink  'r  let  it  alone, 
jest  as  yeh  see  fit!'  And  the  thought  come  over  me 
o'  Josie  a-standin'  there  at  the  gate  waitin'  f'r  me, 
an'  I  set  my  teeth,  an'  jerked  the  hosses'  heads  around, 
an'  like  to  upset  the  buggy  a-turnin'.  'You  look 
pale,  pa,'  says  Josie.  'Maybe  we'd  better  not  go.' 


22O   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

'No,'  says  I,  'I'm  all  right.'  But  what  .  .  .  gits 
me  ...  is  thinkin'  that,  if  I'll  be  hauled  around  like 
that  when  I'm  two  miles  away,  how  long  would  I 
last  ...  if  onst  I  was  to  git  right  down  in  the  midst 
of  it!" 

I  could  not  endure  the  subject  any  longer;  it 
was  so  unutterably  fearful  to  see  him  making  this 
despairing  struggle  against  the  foe  so  strongly  lodged 
within  his  citadel.  I  talked  to  him  of  old  times  and 
places  known  to  us  both,  and  incidentally  called  to 
his  mind  instances  of  the  recovery  of  men  afflicted 
as  he  was.  Soon  Josie  came  after  him,  and  Jim 
dropped  in,  as  he  was  quite  in  the  habit  of  doing, 
making  one  of  those  casual  and  informal  little  com 
panies  which  constituted  a  most  distinctive  feature 
of  life  in  our  compact  little  Belgravia. 

Josie  insisted  that  life  in  the  cow  country  was 
what  she  had  been  longing  for.  She  had  never  shot 
any  one,  and  had  never  painted  a  cowboy,  an  Indian, 
or  a  coyote — things  she  had  always  longed  to  do. 

"You  must  take  me  out  there,  pa,"  said  she. 
"It's  the  only  way  to  utilize  the  capital  we've  fool 
ishly  tied  up  in  the  department  of  the  fine  arts!" 

"I  reckon  we'll  hev  to  do  it,  then,  little  gal," 
said  Bill. 

"My  mind,"  said  Jim,  "is  divided  between  your 
place  up  on  the  headwaters  of  Bitter  Creek  and  Paris. 
Paris  seems  to  promise  pretty  well,  when  this  fitful 
fever  of  business  is  over  and  we've  cleaned  up  the 
mill  run." 

Art,  he  went  on,  seemed  to  be  a  career  for  which 
he  was  really  fitted.  In  the  foreground,  as  a  cowboy, 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    221 

or. in  the  middle  distance,  in  his  proper  person  as  a 
tenderfoot,  it  seemed  as  if  there  was  a  vocation  for 
him.  Josie  made  no  reply  to  this,  and  Jim  went 
away  downcast. 

The  Addison-Giddings  wedding  drew  on  out  of  the 
future,  and  seemed  to  loom  portentously  like  doom 
for  the  devoted  Clifford.  It  may  have  suggested 
itself  to  the  reader  that  Mr.  Giddings  was  an  abnor 
mally  timid  lover.  The  eternal  feminine  at  this 
time  seemed  personified  in  Laura,  and  worked  upon 
him  like  an  obsession.  I  have  never  seen  a  case 
quite  like  his.  The  manner  in  which  the  marriage 
was  regarded,  and  the  extent  to  which  it  was  dis 
cussed,  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  this. 

The  boom  period  anywhere  is  essentially  an  era  in 
which  public  events  dominate  those  of  a  private 
character,  and  publicity  and  promotion,  hand  in 
hand,  occupy  the  center  of  the  stage.  Giddings,  as 
editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Herald,  was  one  of  the 
actors  on  whom  the  lime-light  was  pretty  constantly 
focussed.  Miss  Addison,  belonging  to  the  Lattimore 
family,  and  prominent  in  good  works,  was  more 
widely  known  than  he  among  Lattimoreans  of  the 
old  days,  sometimes  referred  to  by  Mr.  Elkins  as 
the  trilobites,  who  constituted  a  sort  of  ancient  and 
exclusive  caste  among  us,  priding  themselves  on 
having  become  rich  by  the  only  dignified  and  purely 
automatic  mode,  that  of  sitting  heroically  still,  and 
allowing  their  lands  to  rise  in  value.  These  regarded 
Laura  as  one  of  themselves,  and  her  marriage  as  a 
sacrament  of  no  ordinary  character. 

Giddings,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  type  of  the 


222   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

new  crowd  who  had  done  such  wonders,  and  as  the 
embodiment  of  its  spirit,  was  dimly  sensed  by  all 
classes  as  a  sort  of  hero  of  obscure  origin,  who  by 
strong  blows  had  hewed  his  way  to  the  possession  of 
a  princess  of  the  blood.  So  the  interest  was  really 
absorbing.  Even  the  Herald's  rival,  the  Evening 
Times,  dropped  for  a  time  the  normal  acrimony  of 
its  references  to  the  Herald,  and  sent  a  reporter  to 
make  a  laudatory  write-up  of  the  wedding. 

On  the  night  before  the  event,  deep  in  the  evening, 
Giddings  and  a  bibulous  friend  insisted  on  having 
refreshments  served  to  them  in  the  parlor  of  the  club 
house.  This  was  a  violation  of  rules.  Moreover, 
they  had  involuntarily  assumed  sitting  postures 
on  the  carpet,  rendering  waiting  upon  them  a  breach 
of  decorum  as  well.  At  least  this  was  the  view  of 
Pearson,  who  was  now  attached  to  the  club. 

"You  must  excuse  me,  gentlemen,"  he  said, 
"but  Ah'm  bound  to  obey  rules." 

"Bring  us,"  said  Giddings,  "two  cocktails." 

"Can't  do  it,  sah,"  said  Pearson,  "not  hyah, 
sah!" 

"Bring  us  paper  to  write  resignations  on!"  said 
Giddings.  "We  won't  belong  to  a  club  where  we 
are  bullied  by  niggers." 

Pearson  brought  the  paper. 

"They's  no  rule,  suh,"  said  he,  "again'  suhvin' 
resignation  papah  anywhah  in  the  house.  But  let 
me  say,  Mistah  Giddings,  that  Ah  wouldn't  be 
hasty:  it's  a  heap  hahder  to  get  inter  this  club  now 
than  what  it  was  when  you-all  come  in!" 

This   suggestion  of   Pearsons'    was  in   every  one's 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    223 

mouth  as  the  most  amusing  story  of  the  time.  Even 
Giddings  laughed  about  it.  But  all  his  laughter 
was  hollow. 

Some  bets  were  offered  that  one  of  two  things 
would  happen  on  the  wedding-day:  either  Giddings 
(who  had  formerly  been  of  abstemious  habits)  would 
overdo  the  attempt  to  nerve  himself  up  to  the  occa 
sion  and  go  into  a  vinous  collapse,  or  he  would  stay 
sober  and  take  to  his  heels.  Thus,  in  fear  and  trem 
bling,  did  the  inexplicable  disciple  of  lago  approach 
his  happiness;  but,  like  most  soldiers,  when  the 
battle  was  actually  on,  he  went  to  the  fighting-line 
dazed  into  bravery. 

It  was  quite  a  spectacular  affair.  The  church  was 
a  floral  grotto,  and  there  were,  in  great  abundance, 
the  adjuncts  of  ribbon  barriers,  special  electric 
illuminations,  special  music,  full  ritual,  ushers, 
bridesmaids,  and  millinery.  Antonia  was  chief 
bridesmaid,  and  Cornish  best  man.  The  severe 
conformity  to  vogue,  and  preservation  of  good 
form,  were  generally  attributed  to  his  management. 
It  was  a  great  success. 

There  was  an  elaborate  supper,  of  which  Gid 
dings  partook  in  a  manner  which  tended  to  prove 
that  his  sense  of  taste  was  still  in  his  possession, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  case  with  his  other 
senses.  Josie  was  there,  and  Jim  was  her  shadow. 
She  was  a  little  pale,  but  not  at  all  sad;  her  figure, 
which  had  within  the  past  year  or  so  acquired  some 
thing  of  the  wealth  commonly  conceded  to  matronli- 
ness,  had  waned  to  the  slenderness  of  the  day  I 
first  saw  her  in  the  art-gallery,  but  now,  as  then,  she 


224   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

was  slim,  not  thin.  To  two,  at  least,  she  was  a 
vision  of  delight,  as  one  might  well  see  by  the  look  of 
adoration  which  Jim  poured  into  her  eyes  from  time 
to  time,  and  the  hungry  gaze  with  which  Cornish  took 
in  the  ruddy  halo  of  her  hair,  the  pale  and  intellectual 
face  beneath  it,  and  the  sensuous  curves  of  the  com 
pact  little  form.  For  my  own  part,  my  vote  was 
for  Antonia,  for  the  belle  of  the  gathering;  but  she 
sailed  through  the  evening,  "like  some  full-breasted 
swan,"  accepting  no  homage  except  the  slavish 
devotion  of  Cecil,  whose  con  tant  offering  of  his 
neck  to  her  tread  gave  him  recognition  as  entitled 
to  the  reward  of  those  who  are  permitted  only  to 
stand  and  wait. 

Mr.  Elkins  had  furnished  a  special  train  over  the 
L.  &  G.  W.  to  make  the  run  with  the  bridal  party  to 
Elkins  Junction,  connecting  there  with  the  east- 
bound  limited  on  the  Pendleton  line,  thence  direct 
to  Elysium. 

Laura,  rosy  as  a  bride  should  be,  and  actually 
attractive  to  me  for  the  first  time  in  her  life,  sat  in 
her  traveling-dress  trying  to  look  matter-of-fact, 
and  discussing  time-tables  w'th  her  bridegroom, 
who  seemed  to  find  less  and  less  of  dream  and  more 
of  the  actual  in  the  situation,— calm  returning 
with  the  cutaway.  Cecil  and  the  coterie  of  gilded 
youth  who  followed  him  did  their  share  to  bring 
Giddings  back  to  earth  by  a  series  of  practical 
jokes,  hackneyed,  but  ever  fresh.  The  largest 
trunk,  after  it  reached  the  platform,  blossomed  out 
in  a  sign  reading:  "The  Property  of  the  Bride  and 
Groom.  You  can  Identify  the  Owners  by  that 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    225 

Absorbed  Expression!"  Divers  revelatory  inci 
dents  were  arranged  to  eventuate  on  the  limited 
train.  Precipitation  of  rice  was  produced,  in  modes 
known  to  sleight-of-hand  only.  So  much  of  this 
occurred  that  Captain  Tolliver  showed,  by  a  stately 
refusal  to  see  the  joke,  his  disapproval  of  it — a 
feeling  which  he  expressed  in  an  aside  to  me. 

"Hoss-play  of  this  so't,  suh,"  said  he,  "ought  not 
to  be  tolerated  among  civilized  people,  and  I  believe 
is  not !  In  the  state  of  society  in  which  I  was  reahed 
such  niggah-shines  would  mean  pistols  at  ten  paces, 
within  fo'ty-eight  houahs,  with  the  lady's  neahest 
male  relative!  And  propahly  so,  too,  suh;  quite 
propahly!" 

"Shall  we  go  to  the  train,  Albert?"  said  Alice,  as 
the  party  made  ready  to  go. 

"No,"  said  I,  "unless  you  particularly  wish  it; 
we  shall  go  home." 

"Mr.  Barslow,"  said  one  of  the  maids,  "you  are 
wanted  at  the  telephone." 

"Is  this  you,  Al?"  said  Jim's  voice  over  the  wire. 
"  I'm  up  here  at  Josie's,  and  I  am  afraid  there's  trouble 
with  her  father.  When  we  got  here  we  found  him 
gone.  Hadn't  you  better  go  out  and  look  around 
for  him?" 

"Have  you  any  idea  where  I'm  likely  to  find 
him?"  I  asked.  I  saw  at  once  the  significance 
of  Bill's  absence.  He  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
fact  of  his  wife  and  daughter's  going  to  the  wedding, 
and  had  yielded  to  the  thing  which  drew  him  away 
from  them. 

"Try   the   Club,  and   then    O'Brien's,"    answered 


226   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

Jim.  "If  you  don't  find  him  in  one  place  or  the 
other,  call  me  up  over  the  'phone.  Call  me  up  any 
how;  I'll  wait  here." 

The  Times  man  heard  my  end  of  the  conversation, 
saw  me  hastily  give  Alice  word  as  to  the  errand 
which  kept  me  from  going  home  with  her,  observed 
my  preparations  for  leaving  the  company,  and, 
scenting  news,  fell  in  with  me  as  I  was  walking 
toward  the  Club. 

"Any  story  in  this,  Mr.  Barslow?"  he  asked. 

"Oh,  is  that  you,  Watson?"  I  answered.  "I  was 
going  on  an  errand  which  concerns  myself.  I  was 
going  alone." 

"If  you're  looking  for  any  one,"  he  said,  trotting 
along  beside  me,  "I  can  find  him  a  good  deal  quicker 
than  you  can,  probably.  And  if  there's  news  in 
it,  I'll  get  it  anyhow;  and  I'll  naturally  know  it 
more  from  your  standpoint,  and  look  at  it  more 
as  you  do,  if  we  go  together.  Don't  you  think 
so?" 

"See  here,  Watson,"  said  I,  "you  may  help  if  you 
wish.  But  if  you  print  a  word  without  my  con 
sent,  I  can  and  will  scoop  the  Times  every  day,  from 
this  on,  with  every  item  of  business  news  coming 
through  our  office.  Do  you  understand,  and  do 
you  promise?" 

"Why,  certainly,"  said  he.  "You've  got  the 
thing  in  your  own  hands.  What  is  it,  anyhow?" 

I  told  him,  and  found  that  Trescott 's  dipsomania 
was  as  well  known  to  him  as  myself. 

"He's  been  throwing  money  to  the  fowls  for  a 
year  or  two,"  he  remarked.  "It's  better  than  two 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.    227 

to  one  you  don't  find  him  at  the  Club:  the  atmos 
phere  won't  be  congenial  for  him  there." 

At  the  Club  we  found  Watson's  forecast  verified. 
At  O'Brien's  our  knocking  on  the  door  aroused  a 
sleepy  bartender,  who  told  us  that  no  one  was  there, 
but  refused  to  let  us  in.  Watson  called  him  aside, 
and  they  talked  together  for  a  few  minutes. 

"All  right,"  said  the  reporter,  turning  away  from 
him,  "much  obliged,  Hank;  I  believe  you've  struck 
it." 

Watson  was  leader  now,  and  I  followed  him 
toward  Front  Street,  near  the  river.  He  said  that 
Hank,  the  barkeeper,  had  told  him  that  Trescott 
had  been  in  his  saloon  about  nine  o'clock,  drinking 
heavily;  and  from  the  company  he  was  in,  it  was 
to  be  suspected  that  he  would  be  steered  into  a 
joint  down  on  the  river  front.  We  passed  through 
an  alley,  and  down  a  back  basement  stairway, 
came  to  a  door,  on  which  Watson  confidently  knocked, 
and  which  was  opened  by  a  negro  who  let  us  in  as 
soon  as  he  saw  the  reporter.  The  air  was  sickening 
with  an  odor  which  I  then  perceived  for  the  first 
time,  and  which  Watson  called  the  dope  smell. 
There  was  an  indefinable  horror  about  the  place, 
which  so  repelled  me  that  nothing  but  my  obligation 
could  have  held  me  there.  The  lights  were  dim,  and 
at  first  I  could  see  nothing  more  than  that  the  sides 
of  the  room  were  divided  into  compartments  by 
dull-colored  draperies,  in  a  manner  suggesting  the 
sections  of  a  sleeping-car.  There  were  sounds  of 
dreadful  breathings  and  inarticulate  voices,  and 
over  all  that  sickening  smell.  I  saw,  flung  aim- 


228   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

lessly  from  the  crepuscular  and  curtained  recesses, 
here  the  hairy  brawn  of  a  man's  arm,  there  a  woman's 
leg  in  scarlet  silk  stocking,  the  foot  half  withdrawn 
from  a  red  slipper  with  a  high  French  heel.  The 
Gate  of  a  Hundred  Sorrows  had  opened  for  me,  and 
I  stood  as  if  gazing,  with  eyes  freshly  unsealed  to 
its  horrors, .  into  some  dim  inferno,  sibilant  with 
hisses,  and  enwrapped  in  indeterminate  dragon- 
folds — and  I  in  quest  of  a  lost  soul. 

"He  wouldn't  go  with  his  pal,  boss,"  I  heard  the 
negro  say.  "Ah  tried  to  send  him  home,  but  he 
said  he  had  some  medicine  to  take,  an'  he  'nsisted 
on  stayin'." 

As  he  ceased  to  speak,  I  knew  that  Watson  had 
been  interrogating  him,  and  that  he  was  referring 
to  the  man  we  sought. 

"Show  me  where  he  is,"  I  commanded. 

"Yes,  boss!     Right  hyah,  sah!" 

In  an  inner  room,  on  a  bed,  not  a  pallet  like  those 
in  the  first  chamber,  was  Trescott,  his  head  lying 
peacefully  on  a  pillow,  his  hands  clasped  across  his 
chest.  Somehow,  I  was  not  surprised  to  see  no 
evidence  of  life,  no  rise  and  fall  of  the  breast,  no 
sound  of  breathing.  But  Watson  started  forward 
in  amazement,  laid  his  hand  for  a  moment  on  the 
pallid  forehead,  lifted  for  an  instant  and  then 
dropped  the  inert  hand,  turned  and  looked  fixedly 
in  my  face,  and  whispered,  "My  God!  He's  dead!" 

As  if  at  some  great  distance,  I  heard  the  negro 
saying,  "He  done  said  he  hed  ter  tek  some  medicine, 
boss.  Ah  hopes  youall  won't  make  no  tro.uble  foh 
me,  boss — !" 


Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott.   229 

"Send  for  a  doctor!"  said  I.  "Telephone  Mr. 
Elkins,  at  Trescott 's  home!" 

Watson  darted  out,  and  for  an  eternity,  as  it  seemed 
to  me,  I  stood  there  alone.  There  was  a  scurrying 
of  the  vermin  in  the  place  to  snatch  up  a  few  valu- 
bles  and  flee,  as  if  they  had  been  the  crawling  things 
under  some  soon-to-be-lifted  stone,  to  whom  light 
was  a  calamity.  I  was  left  with  the  Stillness  before 
me,  and  the  dreadful  breathings  and  inarticulate 
voices  outside.  Then  came  the  clang  aud  rattle 
of  ambulance  and  patrol,  and  in  came  a  policeman 
or  two,  a  physician,  a  Herald  man  and  Watson,  who 
was  bitterly  complaining  of  Bill  for  having  had  the 
bad  taste  to  die  on  the  morning  paper's  time. 

And  soon  came  Jim,  in  a  carriage,  whirled  along 
the  street  like  a  racing  chariot — with  whom  I  rode 
home,  silent,  save  for  answering  his  questions.  Now 
the  wife,  gazing  out  of  her  door,  saw  in  the  street  the 
Something  for  which  she  had  peered  past  me  the 
other  night. 

The  men  carried  it  in  at  the  door,  and  laid  it  on 
the  divan.  Josie,  her  arms  and  shoulders  still  bare 
in  the  dress  she  had  worn  to  the  wedding,  broke 
away  from  Cornish,  who  was  bending  over  her  and 
saying  things  to  comfort  her,  and  swept  down  the 
hall  to  the  divan  where  Bill  lay,  white  and  still, 
and  clothed  with  the  mystic  majesty  of  death.  The 
shimmering  silk  and  lace  of  her  gown  lay  all  along 
the  rug  and  over  the  divan,  like  drapery  thrown 
there  to  conceal  what  lay  before  us.  She  threw  her 
arms  across  the  still  breast,  and  her  head  went  down 
on  his. 


230   Laura  and  Clifford — Mr.  Trescott. 

"Oh,  pa!  Oh,  pa!"  she  moaned,  "you  never  did 
any  one  any  harm!  .  .  .  You  were  always  good  and 
kind!  .  .  .  And  always  loving  and  forgiving.  .  .  And 
why  should  they  come  to  you,  poor  pa  ...  and  take 
you  from  the  things  you  loved  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  murder 
you  .  .  .  like  this ! ' ' 

Jim  fell  back,  as  if  staggering  from  a  blow.  Cor 
nish  came  forward,  and  offered  to  raise  up  the  stricken 
girl,  whose  eyes  shone  in  her  grief  like  the  eyes  of 
insanity.  Alice  stepped  before  Cornish,  raised  Josie 
up,  and  supported  her  from  the  room. 

Again  it  was  morning,  when  we — Alice,  Jim,  and 
I — sat  face  to  face  in  our  home.  An  untasted  break 
fast  was  spread  before  us.  Jim's  eyes  were  on  the 
cloth,  and  nothing  served  to  rouse  him.  I  knew 
that  the  blow  from  which  he  had  staggered  still 
benumbed  his  faculties. 

"Come,"  said  I,  "we  shall  need  your  best  thought 
down  at  the  Grain  Belt  Building  in  a  couple  of 
hours.  This  brings  things  to  a  crisis.  We  shall 
have  a  terrible  dilemma  to  face,  it's  likely.  Eat 
and  be  ready  to  face  it!" 

"God!"  said  he,  "it's  the  old  tale  over  again,  Al: 
throw  the  dead  and  wounded  overboard  to  clear  the 
decks,  and  on  with  the  fight!" 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

f  n  THHbtcb  Bvents  "Resume  tbeir  TH0ual  Course— at  a 
Somewbat  accelerates  pace. 

THE  death  of  Mr.  Trescott  was  treated  with  that 
consideration  which  the  affairs  of  the  locally  promi 
nent  always  receive  in  towns  where  local  papers  are 
in  close  financial  touch  with  the  circle  affected. 
Nothing  was  said  of  suicide,  or  of  the  place  where 
the  body  was  found;  and  in  fact  I  doubt  if  the 
family  ever  knew  the  real  facts;  but  the  property 
matters  were  looked  upon  as  a  legitimate  subject  for 
comment. 

"Yesterday,"  said,  in  due  time,  the  Herald,  "the 
Trescott  estate  passed  into  the  hands  of  Will  Latti- 
more,  as  administrator.  He  was  appointed  upon 
the  petition  of  Martha  D.  Trescott,  the  widow. 
His  bond,  in  the  sum  of  $500,000,  was  signed  by 
James  R.  Elkins,  Albert  F.  Barslow,  J.  Bedford 
Cornish,  and  Marion  Tolliver,  as  sureties,  and  is  said 
to  be  the  largest  in  amount  ever  filed  in  our  local 
Probate  Court. 

"Mr,  Lattimore  is  non-committal  as  to  the  value 
of  the  estate.  The  bond  is  not  to  be  taken  as  alto 
gether  indicative  of  this  value,  as  additional  bonds 

231 


232  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

may  be  called  for  at  any  time,  and  the  individual 
responsibility  of  the  administrator  is  very  large.  He 
will  at  once  enter  upon  the  work  of  settling  up  the 
estate,  receiving  and  filing  claims,  and  preparing  his 
report.  He  estimates  the  time  necessary  to  a  full 
understanding  of  the  extent  and  condition  of  his 
trust  at  weeks  and  even  months. 

"The  petition  states  that  the  deceased  died  intes 
tate,  leaving  surviving  him  the  petitioner  and  an 
only  child,  a  daughter,  Josephine.  As  Miss  Trescott 
has  attained  her  majority,  she  will  at  once  come  into 
the  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  this  estate, 
becoming  thereby  the  richest  heiress  in  this  part  of 
the  West.  This  fact  of  itself  would  render  her  an 
interesting  person,  an  interest  to  which  her  charming 
personality  adds  zest.  She  is  a  very  beautiful  girl, 
petite  in  figure,  with  splendid  brown  hair  and  eyes. 
She  is  possessed  of  a  strong  individuality,  has  had 
the  advantages  of  the  best  American  and  Continental 
schools,  and  is  said  to  be  an  artist  of  much  ability. 
Mrs.  Trescott  comes  of  the  Dana  family,  prominent 
in  central  Illinois  from  the  earliest  settlement  of 
the  state. 

"President  Elkins,  of  the  L.  &  G.  W.,  who,  per 
haps,  knows  more  than  any  other  person  as  to  the 
situation  and  value  of  the  various  Trescott  proper 
ties,  could  not  be  seen  last  night.  He  went  to 
Chicago  on  Wednesday,  and  yesterday  wired  his 
partner,  Mr.  Barslow,  that  business  had  called  him 
on  to  New  York,  where  he  would  remain  for  some 
time." 

In  another  column  of  the  same  issue  was  a  double- 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  233 

leaded  news-story,  based  on  certain  rumors  that 
Jim's  trip  to  New  York  was  taken  for  the  purpose  of 
financing  extensions  of  the  L.  &  G.  W.  which  would 
develop  it  into  a  system  of  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  of  line. 

"Their  past  successes  have  shown,"  said  the  Herald 
in  editorial  comment  on  this,  "that  Mr.  Elkins  and 
his  associates  are  resourceful  enough  to  bring  such  an 
undertaking,  gigantic  as  it  is,  quite  within  their  abili 
ties.  The  world  has  not  seen  the  best  that  is  in  the 
power  of  this  most  remarkable  group  of  men  to 
accomplish.  Lattimore,  already  a  young  giantess 
in  stature  and  strength,  has  not  begun  to  grow,  in 
comparison  with  what  is  in  the  future  for  her,  if  she 
is  to  be  made  the  center  of  such  a  vast  railway  system 
as  is  outlined  in  the  news  item  referred  to." 

From  which  one  gathers  that  the  young  men 
left  by  Mr.  Giddings  in  charge  of  his  paper  were 
entirely  competent  to  carry  forward  his  policy. 

Jim  had  gone  to  Chicago  to  see  Halliday,  hoping 
to  rouse  in  him  an  interest  in  the  Belt  Line  and 
L.  &  G.  W.  properties;  but  on  arriving  there  had 
telegraphed  to  me  that  he  must  go  to  New  York. 
This  message  was  followed  by  a  letter  of  explanation 
and  instructions. 

"Halliday  spends  a  good  deal  of  his  time  in  New 
York  now,"  the  letter  read,  "and  is  there  at  present. 
His  understudy  here  advised  me  to  go  on  East.  I 
should  rather  see  him  there  than  here,  on  account  of 
the  greater  likelihood  that  Pendleton  may  detect  us : 
so  I'm  going.  I  shall  stay  as  long  as  I  can  do  any 
good  by  it.  Lattimore  won't  get  the  condition  of 


234  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

the  estate  worked  out  for  a  month,  and  until  we 
know  about  that,  there  won't  anything  come  up  of  the 
first  magnitude,  and  even  if  there  should,  you  can 
handle  it.  I  don't  really  expect  to  come  back  with 
the  two  million  dollars  for  the  L.  &  G.  W.,  but  I  do 
hope  to  have  it  in  sight ! 

"In  all  your  prayers  let  me  be  remembered;  'if 
it  don't  do  no  good,  it  won't  do  no  harm,'  and  I'll 
need  all  the  help  I  can  get.  I'm  going  where  the 
lobster  a  la  Newburg  and  the  Welsh  rabbit  hunt  in 
couples  in  the  interest  of  the  Sure-Thing  game; 
where  the  bird-and-bottle  combine  is  the  stalking- 
horse  for  the  Frame-up;  and  where  the  Flim-flam 
(I  use  the  word  on  the  authority  of  Beaumont, 
Fletcher  &  Giddings)  has  its  natural  habitat.  I  go 
to  foster  the  entente  cordiale  between  our  friends 
Pendleton  and  Halliday  into  what  I  may  term  a 
mutual  cross-lift,  of  which  we  shall  be  the  bene 
ficiaries — in  trust,  however,  for  the  use  and  behoof 
of  the  captives  below  decks. 

"Giddings  and  Laura  are  here.  I  had  them  out 
to  a  box  party  last  night.  They  are  most  insuffer 
ably  happy.  Clifford  is  not  sane  yet,  but  is  rallying. 
He  is  rallying  considerably;  for  he  spoke  of  plans 
for  pushing  the  Herald  Addition  harder  than  ever 
when  he  gets  home.  And  you  know  such  a  thing  as 
business  has  never  entered  his  mind  for  six  months — 
unless  it  was  business  to  write  that  'Apostrophe  to 
the  Heart,'  which  he  called  a  poem,  and  which,  I 
don't  mind  admitting  now,  I  hired  his  foreman  to  pi 
after  the  copy  was  lost. 

"Keep  everything  as  near  ship-shape  as  you  can. 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  235 

Watch  the  papers,  or  they  may  do  us  more  harm  in 
a  single  fool  story  than  can  be  remedied  by  wise 
counter-mendacity  in  a  year.  Especially  watch  the 
Times,  although  there's  mighty  little  choice  between 
them.  You  and  Alice  ought  to  spend  as  much  time 
at  the  Trescotts'  as  you  can  spare.  You'll  hear  from 
me  almost  daily.  Wire  anything  of  importance  fully. 
Keep  the  L.  &  G.  W.  extension  story  before  the  people ; 
it  may  make  some  impression  even  in  the  East,  but 
it's  sure  to  do  good  in  the  local  fake  market.  Don't 
miss  a  chance  to  jolly  our  Eastern  banks.  I  should 
declare  a  dividend — say  4% — on  Cement  stock. 
At  Atlas  Power  Company  meeting  ask  Cornish  to 
move  passing  earnings  to  surplus  in  lieu  of  dividend, 
on  the  theory  of  building  new  factories — anyhow, 
consult  with  the  fellows  about  it:  that  money  will 
be  handy  to  have  in  the  treasury  before  the  year  is 
out,  unless  I  am  mistaken.  Sorry  I  can't  be  at  these 
meetings.  Will  be  back  for  those  of  Rapid  Transit 
and  Belt  Line  Companies. 

"  Yours, 

"  JIM. 

"P.  S. — Coming  in,  I  saw  a  group  of  children  danc 
ing  on  a  bridge,  close  to  a  schoolhouse,  down  near 
the  Mississippi.  I  guess  no  one  but  myself  knew 
what  they  were  doing;  but  I  recognized  our  old 
'  Weevilly  Wheat '  dance.  I  could  imagine  the  ancient 
Scotch  air,  which  the  noise  of  the  train  kept  me 
from  hearing,  and  the  old  words  you  and  I  used  to 
sing,  dancing  on  the  Elk  Creek  bridge: 


236  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

' ' '  We  want  no  more  of  your  weevilly  wheat, 

We  want  no  more  your  barley; 
But  we  want  some  of  your  good  old  wheat, 
To  make  a  cake  for  Charley! ' 

"You  remember  it  all!  How  we  used  to  swing 
the  little  girls  around,  and  when  we  remembered  it 
afterwards,  how  we  would  float  off  into  realms  of 
blissful  companionship  with  freckled,  short-skirted, 
bare-legged  angels!  Things  were  simpler  then,  Al, 
weren't  they?  And  to  emphasize  that  fact,  my  mind 
ran  along  the  trail  of  the  '  Weevilly  Wheat '  into  the 
domain  of  tickers,  margins,  puts  and  calls,  and  all 
the  cussedness  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  came 
bump  against  poor  Bill's  bucket-shop  deals,  and  set 
tled  down  to  the  chronic  wonder  as  to  just  how 
badly  crippled  he  was  when  he  died.  If  Will  gets  it 
figured  out  soon,  at  all  accurately,  wire  me. 

"J." 

The  wedding  tour  came  to  an  end,  and  the  bride 
and  groom  returned  long  before  Mr.  Elkins  did. 
Giddings  dropped  into  my  office  the  day  after  their 
return,  and,  quite  in  his  old  way,  began  to  discuss 
affairs  in  general. 

"I'm  going  to  close  out  the  Herald  Addition," 
said  he.  "Real  estate  and  newspaper  work  don't 
mix,  and  I  shall  unload  the  real  estate.  What  do 
you  say  to  an  auction?" 

"  How  can  you  be  sure  of  anything  like  an  adequate 
scale  of  prices?"  said  I;  "and  won't  you  demoralize 
things?" 

"It'll   strengthen   prices,"    he   replied,    "the   way 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.   237 

I'll  manage  it.  This  is  the  age  of  the  sensational — 
the  yellow — and  you  people  haven't  been  yellow 
enough  in  your  methods  of  selling  dirt.  If  you  say 
sensationalism  is  immoral,  I  won't  dispute  it,  but 
just  simply  ask  how  the  fact  happens  to  be  material? " 

I  saw  that  he  was  going  out  of  his  way  to  say  this, 
and  avoided  discussion  by  asking  him  to  particularize 
as  to  his  methods. 

"We  shall  pursue  a  progressively  startling  course 
of  advertising,  to  the  end  that  the  interest  shall  just 
miss  acute  mania.  I'll  have  the  best  auctioneer  in  the 
world.  On  the  day  of  the  auction  we'll  have  a  series 
of  doings  which  will  leave  the  people  absolutely  no 
way  out  of  buying.  We'll  have  a  scale  of  upset 
prices  which  will  prevent  loss.  Why,  I'll  make  such 
a  killing  as  never  was  known  outside  of  the  Fifteen 
Decisive  Battles.  I  sha'n't  seem  to  do  all  this  per 
sonally.  I  shall  turn  the  work  over  to  Tolliver; 
but  I'll  be  the  power  behind  the  movement.  The 
gestures  and  stage  business  will  be  those  of  Esau, 
but  the  word-painting  will  be  that  of  Jacob." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "I  see  nothing  wrong  about  your 
plan;  and  it  may  be  practicable." 

"There  being  nothing  wrong  about  it  is  no  objec 
tion  from  my  standpoint,"  said  he.  "In  fact,  I 
think  I  prefer  to  have  it  morally  right  rather  than 
otherwise,  other  things  being  equal,  you  know.  As 
for  its  practicability,  you  watch  the  Captain,  and 
you'll  see!" 

This  talk  with  Giddings  convinced  me  that  he 
was  entirely  himself  again;  and  also  that  the  boom 
was  going  on  apace  It  had  now  long  reached  the 


238  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

stage  where  the  efforts  of  our  syndicate  were  rein 
forced  by  those  of  hundreds  of  men,  who,  following 
the  lines  of  their  own  interests,  were  powerfully  and 
effectively  striving  to  accomplish  the  same  ends. 
I  pointed  this  out  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Elkins  in  New 
York. 

"I  am  glad  to  note,"  said  he  in  reply,  "that 
affairs  are  going  on  so  cheerfully  at  home.  Don't 
imagine,  however,  that  because  a  horde  of  volun 
teers  (most  of  them  nine-spots)  have  taken  hold,  our 
old  guard  is  of  any  less  importance.  Do  you  remem 
ber  what  a  Prince  Rupert's  drop  is?  I  absolutely 
know  you  don't,  and  to  save  you  the  trouble  of 
looking  it  up,  I'll  explain  that  it  is  a  glass  pollywog 
which  holds  together  all  right  until  you  snap  off  the 
tip  of  its  tail.  Then  a  job  lot  of  molecular  stresses  are 
thrown  out  of  balance,  and  the  thing  develops  the 
surprising  faculty  of  flying  into  innumerable  frag 
ments,  with  a  very  pleasing  explosion.  Whether 
the  name  is  a  tribute  of  Prince  Rupert's  propensity 
to  fly  off  the  handle,  or  whether  he  discovered  the 
drop,  or  first  noted  its  peculiarities,  I  leave  for  the 
historian  of  the  Cromwellian  epoch  to  decide.  The 
point  I  make  is  this.  Our  syndicate  is  the  tail  of 
the  Lattimore  Rupert's  drop;  and  the  Grain  Belt 
Trust  Co.  is  the  very  slenderest  and  thinnest  tip  of 
the  pollywog's  propeller.  Hence  the  writer's  ten 
dency  to  count  the  strokes  of  the  clock  these 
nights." 

Dating  from  the  night  of  Trescott's  death,  and 
therefore  covering  the  period  of  Jim's  absence,  I 
could  not  fail  to  notice  the  renewed  ardor  with 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  239 

which  Cornish  devoted  himself  to  the  Trescott 
family.  Alice  and  I,  on  our  frequent  visits,  found  him 
at  their  home  so  much  that  I  was  forced  to  the  con 
clusion  that  he  must  have  had  some  encourage 
ment.  During  this  period  of  their  mourning  his 
treatment  of  both  mother  and  daughter  was  at  once 
so  solicitously  friendly,  and  so  delicate,  that  no  one 
in  their  place  could  have  failed  to  feel  a  sense  of 
obligation.  He  sent  flowers  to  Mrs.  Trescott,  and 
found  interesting  things  in  books  and  magazines  for 
Josie.  Having  known  him  as  a  somewhat  cold  and 
formal  man,  Mrs.  Trescott  was  greatly  pleased  with 
this  new  view  of  his  character.  He  diverted  her 
mind,  and  relieved  the  monotony  of  her  grief.  Cor 
nish  was  a  diplomat  (otherwise  Jim  would  have  had 
no  use  for  him  in  the  first  place),  and  he  skilfully 
chose  this  sad  and  tender  moment  to  bring  about  a 
closer  intimacy  than  had  existed  between  him  and 
the  afflicted  family.  It  was  clearly  no  affair  of 
mine.  Nevertheless,  after  several  experiences  in 
finding  Cornish  talking  with  Josie  by  the  Trescott 
grate,  I  considered  Jim's  interests  menaced. 

"Well,"  said  Alice,  when  I  mentioned  this  feel 
ing,  "Mr.  Cornish  is  certainly  a  desirable  match, 
and  it  can  scarcely  be  expected  that  Josie  will  remain 
permanently  unattached." 

There  was  a  little  resentment  in  her  voice,  for 
which  I  could  see  no  reason,  and  therefore  pro 
tested  that,  under  all  circumstances,  it  was  scarcely 
fair  to  blame  me  for  the  lady's  unappropriated 
state. 

"Under  other  conditions,"  said  I,  "I  assure  you 


240  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

that  I  should  not  permit  such  an  anomaly  to  exist — 
if  I  could  help  it." 

The  incident  was  then  declared  closed. 

During  this  absence  of  Jim's,  which,  I  think,  was 
the  real  cause  of  Alice's  displeasure,  the  Herald 
Addition  sale  went  forward,  with  all  the  "yellow" 
features  which  the  minds  of  Giddings  and  Tolliver 
could  invent.  It  began  with  flaring  advertisements 
in  both  papers.  Then,  on  a  certain  day,  the  sale  was 
declared  open,  and  every  bill-board  and  fence  bore 
posters  puffing  it.  A  great  screen  was  built  on  a 
vacant  lot  on  Main  Street,  and  across  the  street  was 
placed,  every  night,  the  biggest  magic  lantern  pro 
curable,  from  which  pictures  of  all  sorts  were  pro 
jected  on  the  screen,  interlarded  with  which  were 
statements  of  the  Herald  Addition  sales  for  the  day, 
and  quotations  showing  the  advance  in  prices  since 
yesterday.  And  at  all  times  the  coming  auction 
was  cried  abroad,  until  the  interest  grew  to  some 
thing  wonderful.  Every  farmer  and  country  mer 
chant  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  city  was  talking 
of  it.  Tolliver  was  in  his  highest  feather.  On  the 
day  of  the  auction  he  secured  excursion  rates  on  all 
of  the  railroads,  and  made  it  a  holiday.  Porter's 
great  military  band,  then  touring  the  country,  was 
secured  for  the  afternoon  and  evening.  Thousands 
of  people  came  in  on  the  excursions  and  it  seemed 
like  a  carnival.  Out  at  the  piece  of  land  platted  as 
the  Herald  Addition,  whither  people  were  conveyed 
in  street-cars  and  carriages  during  the  long  after 
noon  the  great  band  played  about  the  stands  erected 
for  the  auctioneer,  who  went  from  stand  to  stand, 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  241 

crying  off  the  lots,  the  precise  location  of  the  particular 
parcel  at  any  moment  under  the  hammer  being  indi 
cated  by  the  display  of  a  flag,  held  high  by  two  strong 
fellows,  who  lowered  the  banner  and  walked  to 
another  site  in  obedience  to  signals  wigwagged  by 
the  enthusiastic  Captain.  The  throng  bid  excitedly, 
and  the  clerks  who  made  out  the  papers  worked 
desperately  to  keep  up  with  the  demands  for  deeds. 
It  was  clear  that  the  sale  was  a  success.  As  the  sun 
sank,  handbills  were  scattered  informing  the  crowd 
that  in  the  evening  Tolliver  &  Company,  as  a 
slight  evidence  of  their  appreciation  of  the  splendid 
business  of  the  day,  would  throw  open  to  their  friends 
the  new  Cornish  Opera  House,  where  Porter's  cele 
brated  band  would  give  its  regular  high-class  con 
cert.  Tolliver  &  Company,  the  bill  went  on,  took 
pleasure  in  further  informing  the  public  that,  in 
view  of  the  great  success  of  the  day's  sale,  and 
the  very  small  amount  to  which  their  holdings  in 
the  Herald  Addition  were  reduced,  the  remainder  of 
this  choice  piece  of  property  would  be  sold  from  the 
stage  to  the  highest  bidder,  absolutely  without  any 
reservation  or  restriction  as  to  the  price! 

I  had  received  a  telegram  from  Jim  saying  that 
he  would  return  on  a  train  arriving  that  evening,  and 
asking  that  Cornish,  Hinckley,  and  Lattimore  be  at 
the  office  to  meet  him.  I  was  on  the  street  early  in 
the  evening,  looking  with  wonder  at  the  crowds 
making  merry  after  the  dizzy  day  of  speculative 
delirium.  At  the  opera  house,  filled  to  overflowing 
with  men  admitted  on  tickets,  the  great  band  was 
discoursing  its  music,  in  alternation  with  the  insinu- 


242  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

ating  oratory  of  the  auctioneer,  under  whose  skilful 
management  the  odds  and  ends  of  the  Herald  Addi 
tion  were  changing  owners  at  a  rate  which  was  simply 
bewildering. 

"Don't  you  see,"  said  Giddings  delightedly, 
"that  this  is  the  only  way  to  sell  town  lots?" 

Jim  came  into  the  office,  fresh  and  buoyant  after 
his  long  trip,  his  laugh  as  hearty  and  mirth-provok 
ing  as  ever.  After  shaking  hands  with  all,  he  threw 
himself  into  his  own  chair. 

" Boys,"  said  he,  "I  feel  like  a  mouse  just  returning 
from  a  visit  to  a  cat  convention.  But  what's  this 
crowd  for?  It's  nearly  as  bad  as  Broadway." 

We  explained  what  Giddings  and  Tolliver  had  been 
doing. 

"But,"  said  he,  "do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  he's 
sold  that  Addition  to  this  crowd  of  reubs?" 
"He  most  certainly  has,"  said  Cornish. 
"Well,  fellows,"  replied  Jim,  "put  away  the 
accounts  of  this  as  curiosities!  You'll  have  some 
difficulty  in  making  posterity  believe  that  there  was 
ever  a  time  or  place  where  town  lots  were  sold  with 
magic  lanterns  and  a  brass  band!  And  don't  adver 
tise  it  too  much  with  Dorr,  Wickersham  and  those 
fellows.  They  think  us  a  little  crazy  now.  But  a 
brass  band!  That  comes  pretty  near  being  the 
limit." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Mr.  Lattimore,  "I  shall  have  to 
leave  you  soon;  and  will  you  kindly  make  use  of  me 
as  soon  as  you  conveniently  can,  and  let  me  go?" 

"Have  you  got  the  condition  of  the  Trescott 
estate  figured  out?"  said  Mr.  Elkins. 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  243 

"Yes,"  said  the  lawyer. 

We  all  leaned  forward  in  absorbed  interest;  for 
this  was  news. 

"  Have  you  told  these  gentlemen? "  Jim  went  on. 

"I  have  told  no  one." 

"Please  give  us  your  conclusions." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Mr.  Lattimore,  "I  am  sorry 
to  report  that  the  Trescott  estate  is  absolutely 
insolvent!  It  lacks  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  of 
being  worth  anything!" 

There  was  a  silence  for  some  moments. 

"My  God!"  said  Hinckley,  "and  our  trust  com 
pany  is  on  all  that  paper  of  Trescott's  scattered  over 
the  East!" 

"What's  become  of  the  money  he  got  on  all  his 
sales?"  asked  Jim. 

"From  the  looks  of  the  check-stubs,  and  other 
indications,"  said  Mr.  Lattimore,  "I  should  say  the 
most  of  it  went  into  Board  of  Trade  deals." 

Cornish  was  swearing  in  a  repressed  way,  and 
above  his  black  beard  his  face  was  pale.  Elkins  sat 
drumming  idly  on  the  desk  with  his  fingers. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "I  take  it  to  be  conceded 
that  unless  the  Trescott  paper  is  cared  for,  things 
will  go  to  pieces  here.  That's  the  same  as  saying 
that  it  must  be  taken  up  at  all  hazards." 

"Not  exactly,"  said  Cornish,  "at  all  hazards." 

"Well,"  said  Jim,  "it  amounts  to  that.  Has  any 
one  any  suggestions  as  to  the  course  to  be  followed?" 

Mr.  Cornish  asked  whether  it  would  not  be  best  to 
take  time,  allow  the  probate  proceedings  to  drag 
along,  and  see  what  would  turn  up. 


244  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

"But  the  Trust  Company's  guaranties,"  said  Mr. 
Hinckley,  with  a  banker's  scent  for  the  complica 
tions  of  commercial  paper,  "must  be  made  good  on 
presentation,  or  it  may  as  well  close  its  doors." 

"The  thing  won't  'drag  along'  successfully," 
said  Jim.  "Have  you  a  schedule  of  the  assets? " 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Lattimore.  "The  life-insurance 
money  and  the  home  are  exempt  from  liability  for 
debts,  and  I've  left  them  out;  but  the  other  prop 
erties  you'll  find  listed  here." 

And  he  threw  down  on  the  desk  a  folded  docu 
ment  in  a  legal  wrapper. 

"The  family,"  said  Jim  gravely,  "must  be  told 
of  the  condition  of  things.  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  do, 
but  it  must  be  done.  Then  conveyances  must  be 
obtained  of  all  the  property,  subject  to  debts;  and 
we  must  take  the  property  and  pay  the  debts.  That 
also  wil  be  a  hard  thing  to  do — in  several  ways; 
but  it  must  be  done.  It  must  be  done — do  you  all 
agree  ? ' ' 

"  Let  me  first  ask,"  said  Mr.  Cornish,  turning  to  Mr. 
Hinckley,  "how  long  would  it  be  before  there  would 
have  to  be  trouble  on  this  paper?" 

"It  couldn't  possibly  be  postponed  more  than 
sixty  days,"  was  the  answer. 

"Is  there  any  prospect,  "  Cornish  went  on,  address 
ing  Mr.  Elkins,  "of  closing  out  the  railway  properties 
within  sixty  days?" 

"A  prospect,  yes,"  said  Jim. 

"Anything  like  a  certainty?" 

"No,  not  in  sixty  days." 

"Then,"  said  Cornish  reluctantly,  "there    seems 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  245 

to  be  no  way  out  of  it,  and  I  agree.  But  I  feel  as  if 
I  were  being  held  up,  and  I  assent  on  this  ground 
only:  that  Halliday  and  Pendleton  will  never  deal 
on  equal  terms  with  a  set  of  financial  cripples,  and 
that  any  trouble  here  will  seal  the  fate  of  the  railway 
transaction.  But,  lest  this  be  taken  as  a  precedent, 
I  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  I'm  not  jeopardizing 
my  fortune,  or  any  part  of  it,  out  of  any  sentimental 
consideration  for  these  supposed  claims  of  any  one 
who  holds  Lattimore  paper,  in  the  East  or  elsewhere! " 

Jim  sat  drumming  on  the  desk. 

"As  we  are  all  agreed  on  what  to  do,"  said  he 
drawlingly,  "we  can  skip  the  question  why  we  do 
it.  Prepare  the  necessary  papers,  Mr.  Lattimore. 
And  perhaps  you  are  the  proper  person  to  apprise 
the  family  as  to  the  true  condition  of  things.  We'll 
have  to  get  together  to-morrow  and  begin  to  dig 
for  the  funds.  I  think  we  can  do  no  more  to 
night." 

We  walked  down  the  street  and  dropped  into  the 
opera  house  in  time  to  hear  the  grand  finale  of  the 
last  piece  by  the  band.  As  the  great  outburst  of 
music  died  away,  Captain  Tolliver  radiantly  stepped 
to  the  footlights,  dividing  the  applause  with  the 
musicians. 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "puhmit  me 
to  say,  in  bidding  you-all  good-night,  that  I  con 
gratulate  the  republic  on  the  possession  of  a  citizen 
ship  so  awake  to  theiah  true  interests  as  you  have 
shown  you'selves  to-day!  I  congratulate  the  puh- 
chasers  of  propahty  in  the  Herald  Addition  upon 
the  bahgains  they  have  secuahed.  Only  five  minutes' 


246  Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course. 

walk  from  the  cyahs,  and  well  within  the  three-mile 
limit,  the  time  must  soon  come  when  these  lots  will 
be  covahed  with  the  mansions  of  ouah  richah  citi 
zens.  Even  since  the  sales  of  this  aftahnoon,  I  am 
infawmed  that  many  of  the  pieces  have  been  resold 
at  an  advance,  netting  the  puhchasers  a  nice  profit 
without  putting  up  a  cent.  Upon  all  this  I  congratu 
late  you.  Lattimore,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  has 
nevah  been  cuhsed  by  a  boom,  and  I  pray  God  she 
nevah  may!  This  rathah  brisk  growth  of  ouahs, 
based  as  it  is  on  crying  needs  of  ouah  trade  territory, 
is  really  unaccountably  slow,  all  things  considered. 
But  I  may  say  right  hyah  that  things  ah  known  to 
be  in  sto'  foh  us  which  will  soon  give  ouah  city  an 
impetus  which  will  cyahy  us  fo'ward  by  leaps  and 
bounds — by  leaps  and  bounds,  ladies  and  gentlemen 
— to  that  highah  and  still  mo'  commandin'  place 
in  the  galaxy  of  American  cities  which  is  ouahs 
by  right!  And  now  as  you-all  take  youah  leave, 
I  propose  that  we  rise  and  give  three  cheers  fo' 
Lattimore  and  prosperity." 

The  cheers  were  given  thunderously,  and  the 
crowd  bustled  out,  filling  the  street. 

"Well,  wouldn't  that  jar  you!"  said  Jim.  "This 
is  a  case  of  'Gaze  first  upon  this  picture,  then  on 
that'  sure  enough,  isn't  it,  Al?" 

Captain  Tolliver  joined  us,  so  full  of  excitement 
of  the  evening  that  he  forgot  to  give  Mr.  Elkins 
the  greeting  his  return  otherwise  would  have 
evoked. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "it  was  glorious!  Nevah 
until  this  moment  have  I  felt  true  fawgiveness  in 


Events  Resume  their  Usual  Course.  247 

my  breast  faw  the  crime  of  Appomattox!     But  to 
night  we  ah  truly  a  reunited  people!" 

"Glad  to  know  it,"  said  Jim,  "mighty  glad,  Cap 
tain.  The  news'll  send  stocks  up  a-whooping,  if  it 
gets  to  New  York!" 


CHAPTER  XX. 
1  {Twice  Bjplain  tbe  Condition  of  tbe  Crescott  Bstate. 

NOTHING  had  remained  unchanged  in  Lattimore, 
and  our  old  offices  in  the  First  National  Bank  edifice 
had  long  since  been  vacated  by  us.  The  very  build 
ing  had  been  demolished,  and  another  and  many- 
storied  structure  stood  in  its  place.  Now  we  were 
in  the  big  Grain  Belt  Trust  Company's  building, 
the  ground-floor  of  which  was  shared  between  the 
Trust  Company  and  the  general  offices  of  the  Latti 
more  and  Great  Western.  In  one  corner,  and  next 
to  the  private  room  of  President  Elkins,  was  the 
office  of  Barslow  &  Elkins,  where  I  commanded. 
Into  which  entered  Mrs.  Trescott  and  her  daughter 
one  day,  soon  after  Mr.  Lattimore  had  been  given 
his  instructions  concerning  the  offer  of  our  syndicate 
to  pay  the  debts  of  their  estate  and  take  over  its 
properties. 

"Josie  and  I  have  called,"  said  the  widow,  "to 
talk  with  you  about  the  estate  matters.  Mr.  Latti 
more  came  to  see  us  last  night  and — told  us." 

She  seemed  a  little  agitated,  but  in  nowise  so  much 
cast  down  as  might  be  expected  of  one  who,  consid 
ering  herself  rich,  learns  that  she  is  poor.  She  had 
in  her  manner  that  mixture  of  dignity  and  constraint 

248 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.    249 

which  marks  the  bearing  of  people  whose  relations 
with  their  friends  have  been  affected  by  some  great 
grief.  A  calamity  not  only  changes  our  own  feelings, 
but  it  makes  us  uncertain  as  to  what  our  friends 
expect  of  us. 

"What  we  wish  explained,"  said  Josie,  "is  just 
how  it  comes  that  our  property  must  be  deeded 
away." 

"I  can  see,"  said  I,  "that  that  is  a  matter  which 
demands  investigation  on  your  part.  Your  request 
is  a  natural  and  a  proper  one." 

"It  is  not  that,"  said  she,  evidently  objecting  to 
the  word  investigation;  "we  are  not  so  very  much 
surprised,  and  we  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  necessity 
of  doing  it.  But  we  want  to  know  as  much  as  possible 
about  it  before  we  act." 

"Quite  right,"  said  I.  "Mr.  Elkins  is  in  the  next 
office;  let  us  call  him  in.  He  sees  and  can  explain 
these  things  as  clearly  as  any  one." 

Jim  came  in  response  to  a  summons  by  one  of  his 
clerks.  He  shook  hands  gravely  with  my  visitors. 

"We  are  told,"  said  Mrs.  Trescott,  "that  our  debts 
are  a  good  deal  more  than  we  can  pay — that  we 
really  have  nothing." 

"Not  quite  that,"  said  Jim;  "the  law  gives  to  the 
widow  the  home  and  the  life  insurance.  That  is  a 
good  deal  more  than  nothing." 

"As  to  whether  we  can  keep  that,"  said  Josie,  "we 
are  not  discussing  now;  but  there  are  some  other 
things  we  should  like  cleared  up." 

"We  don't  understand  Mr.  Cornish's  offer  to  take 
the  property  and  pay  the  debts,"  said  Mrs.  Trescott. 


250    The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate. 

Jim's  glance  sought  mine  in  a  momentary  and 
questioning  astonishment;  then  he  calmly  returned 
the  widow's  look.  Josie's  eyes  were  turned  toward 
the  carpet,  and  a  slight  blush  tinged  her  cheeks. 

"Ah,"  said  Jim,  "yes;  Mr.  Cornish's  offer.  How 
did  you  learn  of  it?" 

"I  got  my  understanding  of  it  from  Mr.  Lattimore," 
said  Mrs.  Trescott,  "and  told  Josie  about  it." 

"Before  we  consent  to  carry  out  this  plan,"  said 
Josie,  "we  ...  I  want  to  know  all  about  the  motives 
and  considerations  back  of  it.  I  want  to  know 
whether  it  is  based  on  purely  business  considerations, 
or  on  some  fancied  obligation  ...  or  ...  or  ...  on 
merely  friendly  sentiments." 

"As  to  motives,"  said  Mr.  Elkins,  "if  the  purely 
business  requirements  of  the  situation  fully  account 
for  the  proposition,  we  may  waive  the  discussion 
of  motives,  can't  we,  Josie?" 

"I  imagine,"  said  Mrs.  Trescott,  finding  that 
Jim's  question  remained  unanswered,  "that  none 
of  us  will  claim  to  be  able  to  judge  Mr.  Cornish's 
motives." 

"Certainly  not,"  acquiesced  Mr.  Elkins.  "None 
of  us." 

"This  is  not  what  we  came  to  ask  about,"  said 
Josie.  "Please  tell  us  whether  our  house  and  the 
insurance  money  would  be  mamma's  if  this  plan 
were  not  adopted — if  the  courts  went  on  and  settled 
the  estate  in  the  usual  way?" 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "the  law  gives  her  that,  and  justly. 
For  the  creditors  knew  all  about  the  law  when  they 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.   251 

took  those  bonds.  So  you  need  have  no  qualms  of 
conscience  on  that." 

"As  none  of  it  belongs  to  me,"  said  Josie,  "I  shall 
leave  all  that  to  mamma.  I  avoid  the  necessity  of 
settling  it  by  ceasing  to  be  '  the  richest  heiress  in  this 
part  of  the  West' — one  of  the  uses  of  adversity. 
But  to  proceed.  Mamma  says  that  there  is  a  cor 
poration,  or  something,  forming  to  pay  our  debts 
and  take  our  property,  and  that  it  will  take  a  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars  more  to  pay  the  debts  than  the 
estate  is  worth.  I  must  understand  why  this  cor 
poration  should  do  this.  I  can  see  that  it  will 
save  pa's  good  name  in  the  business  world,  and  save 
us  from  public  bankruptcy;  but  ought  we  to  be 
saved  these  things  at  such  a  cost?  And  can  we 
permit — a  corporation — or  any  one,  to  do  this  for 
us?" 

Mr.  Elkins  nodded  to  me  to  speak. 

"My  dear,"  said  I,  "it's  another  illustration  of  the 
truth  that  no  man  liveth  unto  himself  alone — ' 

She  shrank,  as  if  she  feared  some  fresh  hurt  was 
about  to  be  touched,  and  I  saw  that  it  was  the  second 
part  of  the  text  the  anticipation  of  which  gave 
her  pain.  Quotation  is  sometimes  ill  for  a  green 
wound. 

"The  fact  is,"  I  went  on,  "that  things  in  Latti- 
more  are  not  in  condition  to  bear  a  shock — general 
money  conditions,  I  mean,  you  know." 

"I  know,"  she  said,  nodding  assent;  "I  can  see 
that." 

"Your  father  did  a  very  large  business  for  a  time," 
I  continued;  "and  when  he  sold  lands  he  took  some 


252    The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate. 

cash  in  payment,  and  for  the  balance  notes  of  the 
various  purchasers,  secured  by  mortgages  on  the 
properties.  Many  of  these  persons  are  mere  adven 
turers,  who  bought  on  speculation,  and  when  their 
first  notes  came  due  failed  to  pay.  Now  if  you  had 
these  notes,  you  could  hold  them,  or  foreclose  the 
mortgages,  and,  beyond  being  disappointed  in  getting 
the  money,  no  harm  would  be  done." 

"I  understand,"  said  Josie.  "I  knew  something 
of  this  before." 

"But  if  we  haven't  the  notes,"  inquired  her 
mother,  "where  are  they?" 

"Well,"  I  went  on,  "you  know  how  we  have  all 
handled  these  matters  here.  Mr.  Trescott  did  as 
we  all  did:  he  negotiated  them.  The  Grain  Belt 
Trust  Company  placed  them  for  him,  and  his  are 
the  only  securities  it  has  handled  except  those  of  our 
syndicate.  He  took  them  to  the  Trust  Company 
and  signed  them  on  the  back,  and  thus  promised  to 
pay  them  if  the  first  signer  failed.  Then  the  trust 
company  attached  its  guaranty  to  them,  and  they 
were  resold  all  over  the  East,  wherever  people  had 
money  to  put  out  at  interest." 

"I  see,"  said  Josie;  "we  have  already  had  the 
money  on  these  notes." 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "and  now  we  find  that  a  great  many 
of  these  notes,  which  are  being  sent  on  for  payment, 
will  not  be  paid.  Your  father's  estate  is  not  able 
to  pay  them,  and  our  trust  company  must  either 
take  them  up  or  fail.  If  it  fails,  everyone  will  think 
that  values  in  Lattimore  are  unstable  and  fictitious, 
and  so  many  people  will  try  to  sell  out  that  we  shall 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.   253 

have  a  smashing  of  values,  and  possibly  a  panic. 
Prices  will  drop,  so  that  none  of  our  mortgages  will 
be  good  for  their  face.  Thousands  of  people  will  be 
broken,  the  city  will  be  ruined,  and  there  will  be 
hard  and  distressful  times,  both  here  and  where  our 
paper  is  held.  But  if  we  can  keep  things  as  they  are 
until  we  can  do  some  large  things  we  have  in  view, 
we  are  not  afraid  of  anything  serious  happening.  So 
we  form  this  new  corporation,  and  have  it  advance 
the  funds  on  the  notes,  so  as  not  to  weaken  the  trust 
company — and  because  we  can't  afford  to  do  it 
otherwise — and  we  know  you  would  not  permit  it 
anyhow ;  and  we  ask  you  to  give  to  the  new  corpora 
tion  all  the  property  which  the  creditors  could  reach, 
which  will  be  held,  and  sold  as  opportunity  offers, 
so  as  to  make  the  loss  as  small  as  possible.  But  we 
must  keep  off  this  panic  to  save  ourselves." 

"I  must  think  about  this,"  said  Josie.  "I  don't 
see  any  way  out  of  it ;  but  to  have  one's  affairs  so 
wrapped  up  in  such  a  great  tangle  that  one  loses 
control  of  them  seems  wrong,  somehow.  And  so 
far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  think  I  should  prefer  to 
turn  everything  over  to  the  creditors — house  and  all 
—than  to  have  even  so  good  friends  as  yourself  take 
on  such  a  load  for  us.  It  seems  as  if  we  were  saying 
to  you,  'Pay  our  debts  or  we'll  ruin  you!'  I  must 
think  about  it." 

"You  understand  it  now?"  said  Jim. 

"Yes,  in  a  way." 

"Let  me  come  over  this  evening,"  said  he,  "and  I 
think  I  can  remove  this  feeling  from  your  mind. 
And  by  the  way,  the  new  corporation  is  not  going  to 


254  The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate. 

have  the  ranch  out  on  the  Cheyenne  Range.  The 
syndicate  says  it  isn't  worth  anything.  And  I'm 
going  to  take  it.  I  still  believe  in  the  headwaters  of 
Bitter  Creek  as  an  art  country." 

"Thank  you,"  said  she  vaguely. 

Somehow,  the  explanation  of  the  estate  affairs 
seemed  to  hurt  her.  Her  color  was  still  high,  but 
her  eyes  were  suffused,  her  voice  grew  choked  at 
times,  and  she  showed  the  distress  of  her  recent 
trials,  in  something  like  a  loss  of  self-control.  Her 
pretty  head  and  slender  figure,  the  flexile  white  hands 
clasped  together  in  nervous  strain  to  discuss  these 
so  vital  matters,  and,  more  than  all,  the  departure 
from  her  habitual  cool  and  self-possessed  manner, 
was  touching,  and  appealed  powerfully  to  Jim.  He 
walked  up  to  her,  as  she  stood  ready  to  leave,  and 
laid  his  hand  lightly  on  her  arm. 

"The  way  Barslow  puts  these  property  matters," 
said  he,  "you  are  called  upon  to  think  that  all 
arrangements  have  been  made  upon  a  cold  cash 
basis;  and,  actually,  that's  the  fact.  But  you 
mustn't  either  of  you  think  that  in  dealing  with  you 
we  have  forgotten  that  you  are  dear  to  us — friends. 
We  should  have  had  to  act  in  the  same  way  if  you 
had  been  enemies,  perhaps,  but  if  there  had  been 
any  way  in  which  our — regard  could  have  shown 
itself,  that  way  would  have  been  followed." 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Trescott,  "we  understand  that. 
Mr.  Lattimore  said  almost  the  same  thing,  and  we 
know  that  in  what  he  did  Mr.  Cornish — 

"We  must  go  now,  mamma,"  said  Josie.  "Thank 
you  both  very  much.  It  won't  do  any  harm  for  me 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.    255 

to  take  a  day  or  so  for  considering  this  in  all  its  phases ; 
but  I  know  now  what  I  shall  do.  The  thought  of  the 
distress  that  might  come  to  people  here  and  elsewhere 
as  a  result  of  these  mistakes  here  is  a  new  one,  and  a 
little  big  for  me,  at  first." 

Jim  sat  by  the  desk,  after  they  went  away,  folding 
insurance  blotters  and  savagely  tearing  them  in 
pieces. 

"I  wish  to  God,"  said  he,  "that  I  could  throw  my 
hand  into  the  deck  and  quit!" 

"What's  the  matter?"  said  I. 

"Oh — nothing,"  he  returned.  "Only,  look  at  the 
situation.  She  comes  in,  filled  with  the  idea  that  it 
was  Cornish  who  proposed  this  plan,  and  that  he  did 
it  for  her  sake.  I  couldn't  very  well  say,  like  a  boy, 
' 'Twasn't  Cornish;  'twas  me!',  could  I?  And  in 
showing  her  the  purely  mercenary  character  of  the 
deal,  I'm  put  in  the  position  of  backcapping  Cor 
nish,  and  she  goes  away  with  that  impression !  Oh,  Al, 
what's  the  good  of  being  able  to  convince  and  con 
trol  every  one  else,  if  you  are  always  further  off  than 
Kamschatka  with  the  only  one  for  whose  feelings  you 
really  care?  " 

"I  don't  think  it  struck  her  in  that  way  at  all," 
said  I.  "She  could  see  how  it  was,  and  did,  what 
ever  her  mother  may  think.  But  what  possessed 
Lattimore  to  tell  Mrs.  Trescott  that  Cornish  story?" 

''Oh,  Lattimore  never  said  anything  like  that !"  he 
returned  disgustedly.  "He  told  her  that  it  was 
proposed  by  a  friend,  or  one  of  the  syndicate,  or 
something  like  that;  and  they  are  so  saturated  with 
the  Cornish  idea  up  there  lately,  that  they  filled  up 


256   The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate. 

the  blank  out  of  their  own  minds.  Another  mighty 
encouraging  symptom,  isn't  it?" 

Not  more  than  a  day  or  two  after  this,  and  after  the 
news  of  the  "purchase"  of  the  Trescott  estate  was 
being  whispered  about,  my  telephone  rang,  just  before 
my  time  for  leaving  the  office,  and,  on  answering,  I 
found  that  Antonia  was  at  the  other  end  of  the  wire. 

"Is  this  Mr.  Barslow?"  said  she.  "How  do  you 
do?  Alice  is  with  us  this  afternoon,  and  she  and 
mamma  have  given  me  authority  to  bring  you  home 
to  dinner  with  us.  Do  you  surrender?" 

"Always,"  said  I,  "at  such  a  summons." 

"Then  I'll  come  for  you  in  ten  minutes,  if  you'll 
wait  for  me.  It's  ever  so  good  of  you." 

From  her  way  of  finishing  the  conversation,  I 
knew  she  was  coming  to  the  office.  So  I  waited  in 
pleasurable  anticipation  of  her  coming,  thinking  of 
the  perversity  of  the  scheme  of  things  which  turned 
the  eyes  of  both  Jim  and  Cornish  to  Josie,  while  this 
girl  coming  to  fetch  me  yearned  so  strongly  toward 
one  of  them  that  her  sorrow — borne  lightly  and 
cheerfully  as  it  was — was  an  open  secret.  When 
she  came  she  made  her  way  past  the  clerks  in  the 
first  room  and  into  my  private  den.  Not  until  the 
door  closed  behind  her,  and  we  were  alone,  did  I  see 
that  she  was  not  in  her  usual  spirits.  Then  I  saw 
that  unmistakable  quiver  in  her  lips,  so  like  a  smile, 
so  far  from  mirth,  which  my  acquaintance  with  the 
girl,  so  sensitive  and  free  from  secretiveness,  had  made 
me  familiar  with. 

"I  want  to  know  about  some  things,"  said  she, 
"that  papa  hints  about  in  a  blind  sort  of  a  way, 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.    257 

but  doesn't  tell, clearly.  Is  it  true  that  Josie  and 
her  mother  are  poor?" 

"That  is  something  which  ought  not  to  be  known 
yet,"  said  I,  "but  it  is  true." 

"Oh,"  said  she  tearfully,  "  I  am  so  sorry,  so  sorry! " 
"Antonia,"  said  I,  as  she  hastily  brushed  her  eyes, 
" these  tears  do  your  kind  heart  credit!" 

"Oh,  don't,  don't  talk  to  me  like  that!"  she  ex 
claimed  passionately.  "My  kind  heart!  Why, 
sometimes  I  hate  her;  and  I  would  be  glad  if  she 
was  out  of  the  world!  Don't  look  like  that  at  me! 
And  don't  pretend  to  be  surprised,  or  say  you  don't 
understand  me.  I  think  every  one  understands  me, 
and  has  for  a  long  time.  I  think  everybody  on  the 
street  says,  after  I  pass,  'Poor  Antonia!'  I  must 
talk  to  somebody!  And  I'd  rather  talk  to  you 
because,  even  though  you  are  a  man  and  can't 
possibly  know  how  I  feel,  you  understand  him 
better  than  any  one  else  I  know — and  you  love  him 
too!" 

I  started  to  say  something,  but  the  situation 
did  not  lend  itself  to  words.  Neither  could  I  pat 
her  on  the  shoulders,  or  press  her  hand,  as  I  might 
have  done  with  a  man.  Pale  and  beautiful,  her  jaunty 
hat  a  little  awry,  her  blonde  ringlets  in  some  disorder, 
she  sat  unapproachable  in  her  grief. 

''You  look  at  me,"  said  she,  with  a  little  gasping 
laugh,  "as  if  I  were  a  drowning  girl,  and  you 
chained  to  the  bank.  If  you  haven't  pitied  me  in 
the  past,  Albert,  don't  pity  me  now;  for  the  mere 
saying  openly  to  some  human  being  tnat  I  love  him 
seems  almost  to  make  me  happy!" 


258    The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate. 

I  lamely  murmured  some  inanity,  of  which  she 
took  not  the  slightest  notice. 

"Is  it  true,"  she  asked,  "that  Mr.  Elkins  is  to  pay 
their  debts,  and  that  they  are  to  be — married?" 

"No,"  said  I,  glad,  for  some  reason  which  is  not 
Very  clear,  to  find  something  to  deny.  "Nothing 
of  the  sort,  I  assure  you." 

And  again,  this  time  something  wearily,  for  it  was 
the  second  time  over  it  in  so  short  a  time,  I  explained 
the  disposition  of  the  Trescott  estate. 

"But  he  urged  it?"  she  said.  "He  insisted 
upon  it?" 

"Yes." 

She  arose,  buttoned  her  jacket  about  her,  and  stood 
quietly  as  if  to  test  her  mastery  of  herself,  once  or 
twice  moving  as  if  to  speak,  but  stopping  short, 
with  a  long,  quivering  sigh.  I  longed  to  take  her  in 
my  arms  and  comfort  her;  for,  in  a  way,  she  at 
tracted  me  strongly. 

"Mr.  Barslow,"  said  she  at  last,  "I  have  no 
apology  to  make  to  you ,  for  you  are  my  friend  And 
I  have  no  feeling  toward  Mr  Elkins  of  which,  in 
my  secret  heart,  and  so  long  as  he  knows  nothing 
of  it,  I  am  not  proud.  To  know  him  .  .  and  love 
him  may  be  death  .  .  .  but  it  is  honor!  .  .  I  am 
sorry  Josie  is  poor,  because  it  is  a  hard  thing  for  her, 
but  more  because  I  know  he  will  be  drawn  to  her 
in  a  stronger  way  by  her  poverty  Shake  hands 
with  me,  Albert,  and  be  jolly  I'm  jollier,  away 
down  deep,  than  I've  been  for  a  long,  long  time,  and 
I  thank  you  for  that ! ' ' 

We    shook    hands    warmly,    like    comrades,    and 


The  Condition  of  the  Trescott  Estate.    259 

passed  down  to  her  carriage  together  At  dinner 
she  was  vivacious  as  ever;  but  I  was  downcast.  So 
much  so  that  Mrs.  Hinckley  devoted  herself  to  me, 
cheering  me  with  a  dissertation  on  "Sex  in  Mind." 
I  asked  myself  if  the  atmosphere  in  which  she  had 
been  reared  had  not  in  some  degree  contributed  to 
the  attitude  of  Antonia  toward  the  expression  to 
me  of  her  regard  for  Jim. 

So  the  Trescott  estate  matter  was  arranged.  In  a 
few  days  the  boom  was  strengthened  by  newspaper 
stories  of  the  purchase,  by  heavy  financial  interests, 
of  the  entire  list  of  assets  in  the  hands  of  the  admin 
istrator. 

"This  immense  deal,"  said  the  Herald,  "is  new 
proof  of  the  desirability  of  Lattimore  property. 
The  Acme  Investment  Company,  which  will  handle  the 
properties,  has  bought  for  investment,  and  will  hold 
for  increased  prices.  It  may  be  taken  as  certain 
that  in  no  other  city  in  the  country  could  so  large 
and  varied  a  list  of  holdings  be  so  quickly  and  advan 
tageously  realized  upon." 

This  was  cheering — to  the  masses.  But  to  us 
it  was  like  praise  for  the  high  color  of  a  fever  patient. 
Even  while  the  rehabilitated  Giddings  thus  lifted 
his  voice  in  paeans  of  rejoicing,  the  lurid  signals  of 
danger  appeared  in  our  sky. 


CHAPTER  XXL 
©f  Confltcte,  Mitbrn  anfc  TKHitbout. 

I  HAVE  often  wished  that  some  sort  of  a  business 
weather-chart  might  be  periodically  got  out,  showing 
conditions  all  over  the  world.  It  seems  to  me  that 
with  such  a  map  one  could  forecast  financial  storms 
and  squalls  with  an  accuracy  quite  up  to  the  weather- 
bureau  standard. 

Had  we  at  Lattimore  been  provided  with  such  a 
chart,  and  been  reminded  of  the  wisdom  of  referring 
to  it  occasionally,  we  might  have  saved  ourselves 
some  surprises.  We  should  have  known  of  certain 
areas  of  speculative  high  pressure  in  Australasia, 
Argentina,  and  South  Africa,  which  existed  even  prior 
to  my  meeting  with  Jim  that  day  in  the  Pullman 
smoking-room  coming  out  of  Chicago.  These  we 
should  have  seen  changing  month  by  month,  until 
at  the  time  when  we  were  most  gloriously  carrying 
things  before  us  in  Lattimore,  each  of  these  spots  on 
the  other  side  of  the  little  old  world  showed  financial 
disturbances — pronounced  "lows."  We  should  have 
seen  symptoms  of  storm  on  the  European  bourses, 
and  we  should  have  thought  of  the  natural  progress 
of  the  moving  areas,  and  derived  much  benefit  from 
such  consideration.  We  should  certainly  have  paid 

260 


Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without.   261 

some  attention  to  it,  if  we  could  have  seen  the  black 
isobars  drawn  about  London, when  the  great  banking 
house  of  Fleischmann  Brothers  went  down  in  the 
wreck  of  their  South  African  and  Argentine  invest 
ments.  But  having  no  such  chart,  and  being  much 
engrossed  in  the  game  against  the  World  and  Destiny, 
we  glanced  for  a  moment  at  the  dispatches,  seeing 
nothing  in  them  of  interest  to  us,  congratulated  our 
selves  that  we  were  not  as  other  investors  and 
speculators,  and  played  on. 

Once  in  a  while  we  found  some  over-cautious 
banker  or  broker  who  had  inexplicable  fears  for  the 
future. 

"Here  is  an  idiot,"  said  Cornish,  while  we  were 
placing  the  paper  to  float  the  Trescott  deal,  "who 
is  calling  his  loans;  and  why,  do  you  think?" 

"Can't  guess,"  said  Jim,  "unless  he  needs  the 
money.  How  does  he  account  for  it?" 

"Read  his  letter,"  said  Cornish.  "Says  the 
Fleischmann  failure  in  London  is  making  his  direc 
tors  cautious.  I'm  calling  his  attention  to  the 
now  prevailing  sun-spots,  as  bearing  on  Lattimore 
property." 

Mr.  Elkins  read  the  letter  carefully,  turned  it 
over,  and  read  it  again. 

"Don't,"  said  he;  "he  may  be  one  of  those  asses 
who  fail  to  see  the  business  value  of  the  reductio 
ad  absurdum.  .  .  .  Fellows,  we  must  push  this  L.  &  G.W. 
business  with  Pendleton.  Some  of  us  ought  to  be 
down  there  now." 

"That  is  wise  counsel,"  I  agreed,  "and  you're  the 
man." 


262  Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without. 

"No,"  said  he  positively,  "I'm  not  the  man. 
Cornish,  can't  you  go,  starting,  say,  to-morrow?" 

"No  indeed,"  said  Cornish  with  equal  positive- 
ness;  "since  my  turn-down  by  Wade  on  that  bond 
deal,  I'm  out  of  touch  with  the  lower  Broadway  and 
Wall  Street  element.  It  seems  clear  to  me  that  you 
are  the  only  one  to  carry  this  negotiation  forward." 

"I  can't  go,  absolutely,"  insisted  Jim.  "Al,  it 
seems  to  be  up  to  you." 

I  knew  that  Jim  ought  to  do  this  work,  and  could 
not  understand  the  reasons  for  both  himself  and  Cor 
nish  declining  the  mission.  Privately,  I  told  him 
that  it  was  nonsense  to  send  me;  but  he  found 
reasons  in  plenty  for  the  course  he  had  determined 
upon.  He  had  better  control  of  the  hot  air,  he 
said,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  I  was  more  in  Pendle- 
ton's  class  than  he  was.  I  was  more  careful  in  my 
statements,  and  I  saw  further  into  men's  minds. 

"And  if,  as  you  say,"  said  he,  "Pendleton  thinks 
me  the  whole  works  here,  it  will  show  a  self-possession 
and  freedom  from  anxiety  on  our  part  to  accredit  a 
subordinate  (as  you  call  yourself)  as  envoy  to  the 
court  of  St.  Scads.  Again,  affairs  here  are  likely  to 
need  me  at  any  time;  and  if  we  go  wrong  here,  it's 
all  off.  I  don't  dare  leave.  Anyhow,  down  deep 
in  your  subconsciousness,  you  know  that  in  diplo 
macy  you  really  have  us  all  beaten  to  a  pulp:  and 
this  is  a  matter  as  purely  diplomatic  as  draw-poker. 
You'll  do  all  right." 

My  wife  was  skeptical  as  to  the  necessity  of  my 
going. 

"Why  doesn't  Mr.  Cornish  go,  then  ?"  she  inquired, 


Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without.   263 

after    I    had   explained   to   her  the   position   of   Mr. 
Elkins.     "He  is  a  native  of  Wall  Street,  I  believe." 

"Well,"  I  repeated,  "they  both  say  positively 
that  they  can't  go." 

"Your  natural  specialty  may  be  diplomacy," 
said  she  pityingly,  "but  if  you  take  the  reasons 
they  give  as  the  real  ones,  I  must  be  permitted  to 
doubt  it.  It's  perfectly  obvious  that  if  Josie  were 
transferred  to  New  York,  the  demands  of  business 
would  take  them  both  there  at  once." 

This  remark  struck  me  as  very  subtle,  and  as 
having  a  good  deal  in  it.  Josie  had  never  per 
mitted  the  rivalry  between  Jim  and  Cornish  to  become 
publicly  apparent;  but  in  spite  of  the  mourning 
which  kept  the  Trescott's  in  semi -retirement,  it 
was  daily  growing  more  keen.  Elkins  was  plainly 
anxious  at  the  progress  Cornish  had  seemed  to 
make  during  his  last  long  absence,  and  still  doubtful 
of  his  relations  with  Josie  after  that  utterance  over 
her  father's  body.  But  he  was  not  one  to  give  up, 
and  so,  whenever  she  came  over  for  an  evening  with 
Alice,  Jim  was  sure  to  drop  in  casually  and  see  us. 
I  believe  Alice  telephoned  him.  On  the  other  hand, 
Cornish  was  calling  at  the  Trescott  house  with 
increasing  frequency.  Mrs.  Trescott  was  decidedly 
favorable  to  him,  Alice  a  pronounced  partisan  of 
Elkins;  and  Josie  vibrated  between  the  two  oppo 
sitely  charged  atmospheres,  calmly  non-committal, 
and  apparently  pleased  with  both.  But  the  affair  was 
affecting  our  relations.  There  was  a  new  feeling,  still 
unexpressed,  of  strain  and  stress,  in  spite  of  the 
familiarity  and  comradeship  of  long  and  intimate 


264  Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without. 

intercourse.  Moreover,  I  felt  that  Mr.  Hinckley 
was  not  on  the  same  terms  with  Jim  as  formerly, 
and  I  wondered  if  he  was  possessed  of  Antonia's 
secret. 

It  was  with  a  prevision  of  something  out  of  the 
ordinary,  therefore,  that  I  received  through  Alice  a 
request  from  Josie  for  a  private  interview  with  me. 
She  would  come  to  us  at  any  time  when  I  would 
telephone  that  I  was  at  home  and  would  see  her. 
Of  course  I  at  once  decided  I  would  go  to  her.  Which, 
that  evening,  my  last  in  Lattimore  before  starting 
for  the  East,  I  did. 

There  was  a  side  door  to  my  house,  and  a  corre 
sponding  one  in  the  Trescott  home  across  the  street. 
We  were  all  quite  in  the  habit,  in  our  constant  visit 
ing  between  the  households,  of  making  a  short  cut  by 
crossing  the  road  from  one  of  these  doors  to  the 
other.  This  I  did  that  evening,  rapped  at  the  door, 
and  imagining  I  heard  a  voice  bid  me  come  in, 
opened  it,  and  stepping  into  the  library,  found  no  one. 
The  door  between  the  library  and  the  front  hall 
stood  open,  and  through  it  I  heard  the  voice  of 
Miss  Trescott  and  the  clear,  carrying  tones  of  Mr. 
Cornish,  in  low  but  earnest  conversation. 

"Yes,"  I  heard  him  say,  "perhaps.  And  if  I  am, 
haven't  I  abundant  reason?" 

"I  have  told  you  often,"  said  she  pleadingly, 
"that  I  would  give  you  a  definite  answer  whenever 
you  definitely  demand  it — " 

"And  that  it  would  in  that  case  be  '  No,'  he  added, " 
completing  the  sentence.  "Oh,  Josie,  my  darling, 
haven't  you  punished  me  enough  for  my  bad  con- 


Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without.   265 

duct  toward  you  in  that  old  time?  I  was  a  young 
fool,  and  you  a  strange  country  girl;  but  as  soon  as 
you  left  us,  I  began  to  feel  your  sweetness.  And  I 
was  seeking  for  you  everywhere  I  went  until  I  found 
you  that  night  up  there  by  the  lake.  Does  that 
seem  like  slighting  you?  Why,  I  hope  you  don't 
deem  me  capable  of  being  satisfied  in  this  hole 
Lattimore,  under  any  circumstances,  if  it  hadn't 
been  for  the  hope  and  comfort  your  being  here  has 
given  me!" 

' '  I  thought  we  were  to  say  no  more  about  that  old 
time,"  said  she;  "I  thought  the  doings  of  Johnny 
Cornish  were  not  to  be  remembered  by  or  of  Bed 
ford." 

The  name  I've  asked  you  to  call  me  by!"  said  he 
passionately.  "Does  that  mean — " 

" It  means  nothing,"  said  she.  "Oh,  please,  please! 
— Good-night ! " 

I  retired  to  the  porch,  and  rapped  again.  She 
came  to  the  door  blushing  redly,  and  so  fluttered  by 
their  leave-taking  that  I  thanked  God  that  Jim 
was  not  in  my  place.  There  would  have  been 
division  in  our  ranks  at  once;  for  it  seemed  to  me 
that  her  conduct  to  Cornish  was  too  complaisant  by 
far. 

"I  came  over,"  said  I,  "because  Alice  said  you 
wanted  to  see  me." 

I  think  there  must  have  been  in  my  tone  something 
of  the  reproach  in  my  thoughts ;  for  she  timidly  said 
she  was  sorry  to  have  given  me  so  much  trouble. 

"Oh,  don't,  Josie!"  said  I.  "You  know  I'd  not 
miss  the  chance  of  doing  you  a  favor  for  anything. 


266  Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without. 

Tell  me  what  it  is,  my  dear  girl,  and  don't  speak  of 
trouble." 

"If  you  forbid  reference  to  trouble,"  said  she,  smil 
ing,  "it  will  stop  this  conference.  For  my  troubles 
are  what  I  want  to  talk  to  you  about.  May  I  go  on  ? — 
You  see,  our  financial  condition  is  awfully  queer. 
Mamma  has  some  money,  but  not  much.  And  we 
have  this  big  house.  It's  absurd  for  us  to  live  in 
it,  and  I  want  to  ask  you  first,  can  you  sell  it  for 
us?" 

It  was  doubtful,  I  told  her.  A  year  or  so  ago,  I 
went  on,  it  would  have  been  easy;  but  somehow 
the  market  for  fine  houses  was  dull  now.  We  would 
try,  though,  and  hoped  to  succeed.  We  talked  at 
length,  and  I  took  copious  memoranda  for  my 
clerks. 

"There  is  another  thing,"  said  she  when  we  had 
finished  the  subject  of  the  house,  "upon  which  I 
want  light,  something  upon  which  depends  my 
staying  here  or  going  away.  You  know  General 
Lattimore  and  I  are  friends,  and  that  I  place  great 
trust  in  his  conclusions.  He  says  that  the  most 
terrible  hard  times  here  would  result  from  anything 
happening  to  your  syndicate.  You  have  said  almost 
the  same  thing  once  or  twice,  and  the  other  day  you 
said  something  about  great  operations  which  you 
have  in  view  which  will,  somehow,  do  away  with  any 
danger  of  that  kind.  Is  it  true  that  you  would  all 
be — ruined  by  a — breaking  up — or  anything  of  that 
sort?" 

"Just  now,"  I  confessed,  "such  a  thing  would  be 
dangerous;  but  I  hope  we  shall  soon  be  past  all  that." 


Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without.   267 

I  told  her,  as  well  as  I  could,  about  our  hopes, 
and  of  my  mission  to  New  York. 

"You  must  suspect,"  said  she,  "that  my  presence 
here  is  danger  to  your  harmony;  and  through  you, 
to  all  these  people  whose  names  even  we  have  never 
heard.  Shall  I  go  away?  I  can  go  almost  anywhere 
with  mamma,  and  we  can  get  along  nicely.  Now 
that  pa  is  gone,  my  work  here  is  over,  and  I  want  to  get 
into  the  world." 

I  thought  of  the  parallelism  between  her  discon 
tent  and  the  speech  Mr.  Cornish  had  made,  referring 
so  contemptuously  to  Lattimore.  I  began  to  see  the 
many  things  in  common  between  them,  and  I  grew 
anxious  for  Jim. 

" Of  all  things,"  said  she,  "I  want  to  avoid  the  r61e 
of  Helen  setting  a  city  in  flames.  It  would  be  so 
absurd — and  so  terrible;  and  rather  than  do  such  a 
hackneyed  and  harmful  thing,  I  want  to  go  away." 

"Do  you  really  mean  that?"  I  asked.  "Haven't 
you  a  desire  to  make  your  choice,  and  stay?" 

"You  mustn't  ask  that  question,  Albert,"  said 
she.  "The  answer  is  a  secret — from  every  one. 
But  I  will  say — that  if  you  succeed  in  this  mission, 
so  as  to  put  people  here  quite  out  of  danger — I  may 
not  go  away — not  for  some  time!" 

She  was  blushing  again,  just  as  she  blushed  when 
she  admitted  me.  I  thought  once  more  of  the 
fluttering  cry,  "Oh,  please — please!"  and  the  pause 
before  she  added  the  good-night,  and  my  jealousy  for 
Jim  rose  again. 

"Well,"  said  I,  rising,  "all  I  can  say  is  that  I  hope 
all  will  be  safe  when  I  return,  and  that  you  will  find 


268   Of  Conflicts.  Within  and  Without. 

it  quite  possible  to — remain.  My  advice  is:  do 
nothing  looking  toward  leaving  until  I  return." 

"Don't  be  cross  with  me,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  she, 
"for  really,  really — I  am  in  great  perplexity." 

"I  am  not  cross,"  said  I,  "but  don't  you  see  how 
hard  it  is  for  me  to  advise?  Things  conflict  so,  and 
all  among  your  friends!" 

"They  do  conflict,"  she  assented,  "they  do  con 
flict,  every  way,  and  all  the  time — and  do,  do  give 
me  a  little  credit  for  keeping  the  conflict  from  getting 
beyond  control  for  so  long;  for  there  are  conflicts 
within,  as  well  as  without!  Don't  blame  Helen 
altogether,  or  me,  whatever  happens!" 

She  hung  on  my  arm,  as  she  took  me  to  the  door, 
and  seemed  deeply  troubled.  I  left  her,  and  walked 
several  times  around  the  block,  ruminating  upon 
the  extraordinary  way  in  which  these  dissolving 
views  of  passion  were  displaying  themselves  to  me. 
Not  that  the  mere  matter  of  outburst  of  confidences 
surprised  me;  for  people  all  my  life  have  bored  me 
with  their  secret  woes.  I  think  it  is  because  I  early 
formed  a  habit  of  looking  sympathetic.  But  these 
concerned  me  so  nearly  that  their  gradual  focussing 
to  some  sort  of  climax  filled  me  with  anxious  interest. 

The  next  day  I  spent  in  the  sleeping-car,  running 
into  Chicago.  As  the  clickety-c/ac&,  clickety-c/ac^, 
clickety-c/acfc  of  the  wheels  vibrated  through  my 
couch,  I  pondered  on  the  ridiculous  position  of 
that  cautious  Eastern  bank  as  to  the  Fleischmann 
Brothers'  failure;  then  on  the  Lattimore  &  Great 
Western  and  Belt  Line  sale;  and  finally  worked 
around  through  the  Straits  of  Sunda,  in  a  suspicious 


Of  Conflicts,  Within  and  Without.   269 

lateen-rigged  craft  manned  by  Malays  and  Portu 
guese.  Finally,  I  was  horrified  at  discovering 
Cornish,  in  a  slashed  doublet,  carrying  Josie  away 
in  one  of  the  boats,  having  scuttled  the  vessel  and 
left  Jim  bound  to  the  mast. 

"Chicago  in  fifteen  minutes,  suh,"  said  the  porter, 
at  this  critical  point.  "Just  in  time  to  dress,  suh." 

And  as  I  awoke,  my  approach  toward  New  York 
brought  to  me  a  sickening  consciousness  of  the  struggle 
which  awaited  me  there,  and  the  fatal  results  of  failure. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
1fn  wbicb  11  Win  ms  <5rcat  Wctorg. 

MY  plan  was  our  old  one — to  see  both  Pendleton 
and  Halliday,  and,  if  possible,  to  allow  both  to  know 
of  the  fact  that  we  had  two  strings  to  our  bow,  play 
ing  the  one  off  against  the  other.  Whether  or  not 
there  was  any  likelihood  of  this  course  doing  any 
good  was  dependent  on  the  existence  of  the  strained 
personal  relations,  as  well  as  the  business  rivalry, 
generally  supposed  to  prevail  between  the  two 
Titans  of  the  highways.  As  conditions  have  since 
become,  plans  like  mine  are  quite  sure  to  come  to 
naught ;  but  in  those  days  the  community  of  interests 
in  the  railway  world  had  not  reached  its  present 
perfection  of  organization.  Men  like  Pendleton 
and  Halliday  were  preparing  the  way  for  it,  but  the 
personal  equation  was  then  a  powerful  factor  in  the 
problem,  and  these  builders  of  their  own  systems 
still  carried  on  their  private  wars  with  their  own 
forces.  In  such  a  war  our  properties  were  important. 

The  Lattimore  &  Great  Western  with  the  Belt 
Line  terminals  would  make  the  Pendleton  system 
dominant  in  Lattimore.  In  the  possession  of  Halli 
day  it  would  render  him  the  arbiter  of  the  city's 

270 


In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory.   271 

fortunes,  and  would  cut  off  from  his  rival's  lines  the 
rich  business  from  this  feeder.  Both  men  were 
playing  with  the  patience  of  Muscovite  diplomacy 
the  old  and  tried  game  of  permitting  the  little  road  to 
run  until  it  got  into  difficulties,  and  then  swooping 
down  upon  it;  but  either,  we  thought,  and  especially 
Pendleton,  would  pay  full  value  for  the  properties 
rather  than  see  them  fall  into  his  opponent's  net. 

I  wired  Pendleton's  office  from  home  that  I  was 
coming.  At  Chicago  I  received  from  his  private 
secretary  a  telegram  reading:  "Mr.  Pendleton  will 
see  you  at  any  time  after  the  Qth  inst.  SMITH." 

We  had  been  having  some  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Halliday's  office  on  matters  of  disputed  switch 
ing  and  trackage  dues.  The  controversy  had  gone 
up  from  subordinate  to  subordinate  to  the  fountain 
of  power  itself.  A  contract  had  been  sent  on  for 
examination,  embodying  a  modus  vivendi  governing 
future  relations.  I  had  wired  notice  of  my  coming 
to  him  also,  and  his  answer,  which  lay  alongside 
Pendleton's  in  the  same  box,  was  evidently  based 
on  the  supposition  that  it  was  this  contract  which  was 
bringing  me  East,  and  was  worded  so  as  to  relieve 
me  of  the  journey  if  possible. 

"Will  be  in  New  York  on  evening  of  nth,"  it 
read,  "not  before.  With  slight  modifications,  con 
tract  submitted  as  to  L.  &  G.  W.  and  Belt  Line 
matter  will  be  executed.  HALLIDAY." 

I  spent  no  time  in  Chicago,  but  pushed  on,  in  the 
respectable  isolation  of  a  through  sleeper  on  a  limited 
train.  Once  in  a  while  I  went  forward  into  the 
day  coach,  to  give  myself  the  experience  of  the 


272   In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory. 

complete  change  in  the  social  atmosphere.  On 
arrival,  I  began  killing  time  by  running  down  every 
scrap  of  our  business  in  New  York.  My  gorge  rose 
at  all  forms  of  amusement;  but  I  had  a  sensation 
of  doing  something  while  on  the  cars,  and  went  to 
Boston,  and  down  to  Philadelphia,  all  the  time 
feeling  the  pulse  of  business.  There  was  a  lack 
of  that  confident  hopefulness  which  greeted  us  on 
our  former  visits.  I  heard  the  Fleischmann  failure 
spoken  of  rather  frequently.  One  or  two  financial 
establishments  on  this  side  of  the  water  were  looked 
at  askance  because  of  their  supposed  connections 
with  the  Fleischmanns.  Mr.  Wade,  in  hushed  tones, 
advised  me  to  prepare  for  some  little  stringency 
after  the  holidays. 

"Nothing  serious,  you  know,  Mr.  Borlish,"  said  he, 
still  paying  his  mnemonic  tribute  to  the  other  names 
of  our  syndicate;  "nothing  to  be  spoken  of  as  hard 
times;  and  as  for  panic,  the  financial  world  is  too 
well  organized  for  that  ever  to  happen  again!  But 
a  little  tightening  of  things,  Mr.  Comings,  to  sort  of 
clear  the  decks  for  action  on  lines  of  conservatism 
for  the  year's  business." 

I  talked  with  Mr.  Smith,  Mr.  Pendleton's  private 
secretary,  and  with  Mr.  Carson,  who  spoke  for  Mr. 
Halliday.  In  fact  I  went  ove  the  L.  &  G.  W. 
proposition  pretty  fully  with  each  of  them,  and 
each  office  had  a  well-digested  and  succinct  state 
ment  of  the  matter  for  the  examination  of  the 
magnates  when  they  came  back.  Once  while  Mr. 
Carson  and  I  were  on  our  way  to  take  luncheon 
together,  we  met  Mr.  Smith,  and  I  was  glad  to  note 


In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory.   273 

the  glance  of  marked  interest  which  he  bestowed 
upon  us.  The  meeting  was  a  piece  of  unexpected 
good  fortune. 

On  the  loth  I  had  my  audience  with  Mr.  Pendle- 
ton.  He  had  the  typewritten  statement  of  the 
proposition  before  him,  and  was  ready  to  discuss  it 
with  his  usual  incisiveness. 

"I  am  willing  to  say  to  you,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  he, 
"that  we  are  willing  to  take  over  your  line  when  the 
propitious  time  comes.  We  don't  think  that  now  is 
such  a  time.  Why  not  run  along  as  we  are?" 

"Because  we  are  not  satisfied  with  the  railroad 
business  as  a  side  line,  Mr.  Pendleton,"  said  I.  "We 
must  have  more  mileage  or  none  at  all,  and  if  we 
begin  extensions,  we  shall  be  drawn  into  railroading 
as  an  exclusive  vocation.  We  prefer  to  close  out 
that  department,  and  to  put  in  all  our  energies  to 
the  development  of  our  city." 

"When  must  you  know  about  this?"  he  asked. 

"  I  came  East  to  close  it  up,  if  possible,"  I  answered. 
"You  are  familiar  with  the  situation,  and  we  thought 
must  be  ready  to  decide." 

"Two  and  a  quarter  millions,"  he  objected,  "is 
out  of  the  question.  I  can't  expect  my  directors  to 
view  half  the  price  with  any  favor.  How  can  I?" 

"Show  them  our  earnings,"  I  suggested. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "that  will  do  very  well  to  talk  to 
people  who  can  be  made  to  forget  the  fact  that 
you've  been  building  a  city  there  from  a  country 
village,  and  your  line  has  been  pulling  in  everything 
to  build  it  with.  The  next  five  years  will  be  differ 
ent.  Again,  while  I  feel  sure  the  business  men  of  your 


274   In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory. 

town  will  still  throw  things  our  way,  as  they  have 
your  way — tonnage  I  mean — there  might  be  a  ten 
dency  to  divide  it  up  more  than  when  your  own 
people  were  working  for  the  trade.  And  the  next 
five  years  will  be  different  anyhow." 

"Do  you  remember,"  said  I,  "how  skeptical  you 
were  as  to  the  past  five?" 

"I  acknowledge  it,"  said  he,  laughing.  "The 
fact  is  I  didn't  give  you  credit  for  being  as  big  men 
as  you  are.  But  even  a  big  man,  or  a  big  town,  can 
reach  only  as  high  as  it  can.  But  we  can't  settle  that 
question.  I  shouldn't  expect  a  Lattimore  boomer 
ever  to  adopt  my  view  of  it.  I  shall  give  this  matter 
some  attention  to-day,  and  while  I  feel  sure  we  are 
too  far  apart  ever  to  come  together,  come  in  in  the 
morning,  and  we  will  look  at  it  again." 

"I  hope  we  may  come  together,"  said  I,  rising;  "we 
built  the  line  to  bring  you  into  Lattimore,  and  we 
want  to  keep  you  there.  It  has  made  our  town,  and 
we  prize  the  connection  highly." 

"Ah,  yes,"  he  answered,  countering.  "Well,  we 
are  spread  out  a  good  deal  now,  you  know;  and 
some  of  our  directors  look  with  suspicion  upon  your 
sudden  growth,  and  would  not  feel  sorry  to  withdraw. 
I  don't  agree  with  'em,  you  know,  but  I  must  defer 
to  others  sometimes.  Good-morning." 

I  passed  the  evening  with  Carson  at  the  theatre, 
and  supped  with  him  afterward.  He  gave  me 
every  opportunity  to  indulge  in  champagne,  and 
evinced  a  desire  to  know  all  about  business  condi 
tions  in  Lattimore,  and  the  affairs  of  the  L.  &  G.  W. 
I  suspected  that  the  former  fact  had  some  connection 


In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory.   275 

with  the  latter.  I  went  to  my  hotel,  however,  in 
my  usual  state  of  ebriety,  while  Mr.  Carson  had 
attained  a  degree  of  friendliness  toward  me  border 
ing  on  affection,  as  a  direct  result  of  setting  the  pace 
in  the  consumption  of  wine.  I  listened  patiently  to 
his  complaints  of  Halliday's  ungratefulness  toward 
him  in  not  giving  him  the  General  Managership  of  one 
of  the  associated  roads ;  but  when  he  began  to  confide 
to  me  the  various  pathological  conditions  of  his 
family,  including  Mrs.  Carson,  I  drew  the  line,  and 
broke  up  the  party.  I  retired,  feeling  a  little  resent 
ful  toward  Carson.  His  device  seemed  rather  cheap 
to  try  on  a  full-grown  man.  Yet  his  entertainment 
had  been  undeniably  good. 

Next  morning  I  was  admitted  to  the  presence  of 
the  great  man  with  less  than  half  an  hour's  delay. 
He  turned  to  me,  and  plunged  at  once  into  the  midst 
of  the  subject.  Evidently  some  old  misunderstanding 
of  the  question  came  up  in  his  mind  by  association  of 
ideas,  as  a  rejected  paper  will  be  drawn  with  its 
related  files  from  a  pigeon-hole. 

"That  terminal  charge,"  said  he,  "has  not  counted 
for  much  against  the  success  of  your  road,  yet;  but 
the  contract  provides  for  increasing  rentals,  and  it  is 
already  too  much.  The  trackage  and  depots  aren't 
worth  it.  It  will  be  a  millstone  about  your  necks!" 

"Well,"  said  I,  "you  can  understand  the  reason 
for  making  the  rentals  high.  We  had  to  show 
revenue  for  the  Belt  Line  system  in  order  to  float 
the  bonds,  but  the  rentals  become  of  no  consequence 
when  once  you  own  both  properties — and  that's 
our  proposal  to  you." 


276   In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory. 

"Oh,  yes!"  said  he,  and  at  once  changed  the  subject. 
This  was  the  only  instance,  in  all  my  observation  of 
him,  in  which  he  forgot  anything,  or  failed  correctly 
to  see  the  very  core  of  the  situation.  I  felt  somehow 
elated  at  being  for  a  moment  his  superior  in  any 
respect. 

We  began  discussing  rates  and  tonnage,  and  he 
sent  for  his  freight  expert  again.  I  took  from  my 
pocket  some  letters  and  telegrams  and  made  compu 
tations  on  the  backs  of  them.  Some  of  these  figures 
he  wanted  to  keep  for  further  reference. 

"Please  let  me  have  those  figures  until  this  after 
noon,"  said  he.  "I  must  ask  you  to  excuse  me 
now.  At  two  I'll  give  the  matter  another  half-hour. 
Come  back,  Mr.  Barslow,  prepared  to  name  a  reason 
able  sum,  and  I  will  accept  or  reject,  and  finish  the 
matter." 

I  left  the  envelopes  on  his  desk  and  went  out.  At 
the  hotel  I  sat  down  to  think  out  my  program  and 
began  arranging  things  for  my  departure.  Was  it 
the  nth  or  the  i2th  that  Mr.  Halliday  was  to  return? 
I  would  look  at  his  message.  I  turned  over  all  my 
telegrams,  but  it  was  gone. 

Then  I  thought.  That  was  the  telegram  I  had  left 
with  Pendleton!  Would  he  suspect  that  I  had  left 
it  as  a  trick,  and  resent  the  act  ?  No,  this  was  scarcely 
likely,  for  he  himself  had  asked  for  it.  Suddenly  the 
construction  of  which  it  was  susceptible  flashed  into 
my  mind.  "With  slight  modifications  contract 
submitted  as  to  L.  &  G.  W.  and  Qelt  Line  matter 
will  be  executed.  HALLIDAY." 

I  was  feverish  until  two  o'clock;    for  I  could  not 


In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory.    277 

guess  the  effect  of  this  telegram,  should  it  be  read  by 
Pendleton.  I  found  him  impassive  and  keen-eyed, 
and  I  waited  longer  than  usual  for  that  aquiline 
swoop  of  his,  as  he  turned  in  his  revolving  chair.  I 
felt  sure  then  that  he  had  not  read  the  message.  I 
think  differently  now. 

"Well,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  he  smilingly,  "how  far 
down  in  the  millions  are  we  to-day?" 

"Mr.  Pendleton,"  I  replied,  steady  as  to  tone,  but 
with  a  quiver  in  my  legs,  "  I  can  say  nothing  less  than 
an  even  two  millions." 

"It's  too  much,"  said  he  cheerfully,  and  my 
heart  sank,  "but  I  like  Lattimore,  and  you  men 
who  live  there,  and  I  want  to  stay  in  the  town.  I'll 
have  the  legal  department  prepare  a  contract  cover 
ing  the  whole  matter  of  transfers  and  future  relations, 
and  providing  for  the  price  you  mention.  You 
can  submit  it  to  your  people,  and  in  a  short  time  I 
shall  be  in  Chicago,  and,  if  convenient  to  you,  we  can 
meet  there  and  close  the  transaction.  As  a  matter 
of  form,  I  shall  submit  it  to  our  directors;  but  you 
may  consider  it  settled,  I  think." 

"One  of  our  number,"  said  I,  as  calmly  as  if  a  two- 
million-dollar  transaction  were  common  at  Lattimore, 
"can  meet  you  in  Chicago  at  any  time.  When  will 
this  contract  be  drawn?" 

"Call  to-morrow  morning — say  at  ten.  Show 
them  in,"  this  last  to  his  clerk,  "Good-morning,  Mr. 
Barslow." 

One  doesn't  get  as  hilarious  over  a  victory  won 
alone  as  when  he  goes  over  the  ramparts  touching 
elbows  with  his  charging  fellows.  The  hurrah  is  a 


278    In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory. 

collective  interjection.  So  I  went  in  a  sober  frame 
of  mind  and  telegraphed  Jim  and  Alice  of  my  success, 
cautioning  my  wife  to  say  nothing  about  it.  Then 
I  wandered  about  New  York,  contrasting  my  way  of 
rejoicing  with  the  demonstration  when  we  three  had 
financed  the  Lattimore  &  Great  Western  bonds.  I 
went  to  a  vaudeville  show  and  afterward  walked 
miles  and  miles  through  the  mysteries  of  the  night 
in  that  wilderness.  I  was  unutterably  alone.  The 
strain  of  my  solitary  mission  in  the  great  city  was 
telling  upon  me. 

"Telegram  for  you,  Mr.  Barslow,"  said  the  night 
clerk,  as  I  applied  for  my  key. 

It  was  a  long  message  from  Jim,  and  in  cipher.  I 
slowly  deciphered  it,  my  initial  anxiety  growing,  as  I 
progressed,  to  an  agony. 

"Come  home  at  once,"  it  read.  "Cornish  desert 
ing.  Must  take  care  of  the  hound's  interest  somehow. 
Threatens  litigation.  A  hold-up,  buthe  has  the  drop  . 
Am  in  doubt  whether  to  shoot  him  now  or  later. 
Stop  at  Chicago,  and  bring  Harper.  Bring  him, 
understand?  Unless  Pendleton  deal  is  made,  this 
means  worse  things  than  we  ever  dreamed  of;  but 
don't  wait.  Leave  Pendleton  for  later,  and  come 
home.  If  I  follow  my  inclinations,  you  will  find  me 
in  jail  for  murder.  ELKINS." 

All  night  I  sat,  turning  this  over  in  my  mind.  Was 
it  ruin,  or  would  my  success  here  carry  us  through? 
Without  a  moment's  sleep  I  ate  my  breakfast, 
braced  myself  with  coffee,  engaged  a  berth  for  the 
return  journey,  and  promptly  presented  myself  at 
Pendleton's  office  at  ten.  Wearily  we  went  over 


In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory.   279 

the    precious   contract,    and   I   took  my    copy    and 
left. 

All  that  day  I  rode  in  a  sort  of  trance,  in  which  I 
could  see  before  my  eyes  the  forms  of  the  hosts  of 
those  whom  Jim  had  called  "the  captives  below 
decks,"  whose  fortunes  were  dependent  upon  whether 
we  striving,  foolish,  scheming,  passionate  men  went 
to  the  wall.  A  hundred  times  I  read  in  Jim's  tele 
gram  the  acuteness  of  our  crisis;  and  a  sense  of  our 
danger  swept  dauntingly  over  my  spirit.  A  hun 
dred  times  I  wished  that  I  might  awake  and  find  that 
the  whole  thing — Aladdin  and  his  ring,  the  palaces, 
gnomes,  genies,  and  all — could  pass  away  like  a  tale 
that  is  told,  and  leave  me  back  in  the  rusty  little 
town  where  it  found  me. 

I  slept  heavily  that  night,  and  was  very  much 
much  more  myself  when  I  went  to  see  Harper  in 
Chicago.  He  had  received  a  message  from  Jim, 
and  was  ready  to  go.  He  also  had  one  for  me,  sent 
in  his  care,  and  just  arrived. 

"You  have  saved  the  fight,"  said  the  message; 
"your  success  came  just  as  they  were  counting  nine 
on  us.  With  what  you  have  done  we  can  beat  the 
game  yet.  Bring  Harper,  and  come  on." 

Harper,  cool  and  collected,  big  and  blonde,  with  a 
hail-fellow-well-met  manner  which  spoke  eloquently 
of  the  West,  was  a  great  comfort  to  me.  He  made 
light  of  the  trouble. 

"Cornish  is  no  fool,"  said  he,  "and  he  isn't  going 
to  saw  off  the  limb  he  stands  on." 

I  tried  to  take  this  view  of  it ;  but  I  knew,  as  he 
did  not,  the  real  source  of  the  enmity  between  Elkins 


280   In  which  I  Win  my  Great  Victory. 

and  Cornish,  and  my  fears  returned.  Business 
differences  might  be  smoothed  over;  but  with  two 
such  men,  the  quarrel  of  rivals  in  love  meant  nothing 
but  the  end  of  things  between  them. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Gbe  "  Dutchman's  flMU"  anD  IQbat  it  (Brounfc. 

WE  sat  in  conclave  about  the  table.  I  saw  by 
the  lined  faces  of  Elkins  and  Hinckley  that  I  had  come 
back  to  a  closely-beleaguered  camp,  where  heavy 
watching  had  robbed  the  couch  of  sleep,  and  care 
pressed  down  the  spirit.  I  had  returned  successful, 
but  not  to  receive  a  triumph:  rather,  Harper  and 
myself  constituted  a  relief  force,  thrown  in  by 
stratagem,  too  weak  to  raise  the  siege,  but  bearing 
glad  tidings  of  strong  succor  on  the  way. 

It  was  our  first  full  meeting  without  Cornish; 
and  Harper  sat  in  his  place.  He  "was  unruffled  and 
buoyant  in  manner,  in  spite  of  the  stock  in  the  Grain 
Belt  Trust  Company  which  he  held,  and  the  loans 
placed  with  his  insurance  company  "by  Mr.  Hinckley. 

"I  believe,"  said  he,  "that  we  are  here  to  consider 
a  communication  from  Mr.  Cornish.  It  seems  that 
we  ought  to  hear  the  letter." 

"I'll  read  it  in  a  minute,"  said  Jim,  "but  first  let 
me  say  that  this  grows  out  of  a  talk  between  Mr. 
Cornish  and  myself.  Hinckley  and  Barslow  know 
that  there  have  been  differences  between  us  here  for 

some  time." 

281 


282          The  "  Dutchman's  Mill.5> 

"Quite  natural,"  said  Harper;  "according  to  all 
the  experience-tables,  you  ought  to  have  had  a 
fight  somewhere  in  the  crowd  long  before  this." 

"Mr.  Cornish,"  went  on  Mr.  Elkins,  "has  favored 
the  policy  of  converting  our  holdings  into  cash,  and 
letting  the  obligations  we  have  floated  stand  solely  on 
the  assets  by  which  they  are  secured.  The  rest  of  us 
have  foreseen  such  rapid  liquidation,  as  a  certain 
result  of  such  a  policy,  that  not  only  would  our  town 
receive  a  blow  from  which  it  could  never  recover,  but 
the  investment  world  would  suffer  in  the  collapse." 

"I  should  say  so,"  said  Harper;  "we'll  have  to  look 
closely  to  the  suicide  clause  in  our  policies  held  in 
New  England,  if  that  takes  place!" 

"Well,"  said  Jim,  continuing,  "last  Tuesday 
the  matter  came  to  an  issue  between  us,  and  some 
plain  talk  was  indulged  in ;  perhaps  the  language  was 
a  little  strong  on  my  part,  and  Mr.  Cornish  considered 
himself  aggrieved,  and  said,  among  other  things, 
that  he,  for  one,  would  not  submit  to  extinguishment, 
and  he  would  show  me  that  I  could  not  go  on  in  op 
position  to  his  wishes." 

"What  did  you  say  to  that?"  asked  Hinckley. 

"I  informed  him,"  said  Jim,  "that  I  was  from 
Missouri,  or  words  to  that  effect;  and  that  my  own 
impression  was,  the  majority  of  the  stock  in  our  con 
cerns  would  control.  My  present  view  is  that  he's 
showing  me." 

A  ghost  of  a  smile  went  round  at  this,  and  Jim 
began  reading  Cornish's  letter. 

"Events  of  the  recent  past  convince  me,"  the 
secessionist  had  written,  "that  no  good  can  come 


The  "Dutchman's  Mill."          283 

from  the  further  continuance  of  our  syndicate.  I 
therefore  propose  to  sell  all  my  interest  in  our  various 
properties  to  the  other  members,  and  to  retire. 
Should  you  care  to  consider  such  a  thing,  I  am  pre 
pared  to  make  you  an  alternative  offer,  to  buy  your 
interests.  As  the  purchase  of  three  shares  by  one 
is  a  heavier  load  than  the  taking  over  of  one  share 
by  three,  I  should  expect  to  buy  at  a  lower  propor 
tional  price  than  I  should  be  willing  to  sell  for.  As 
the  management  of  our  enterprises  seems  to  have 
abandoned  the  tried  principles  of  business,  for  some 
considerations  the  precise  nature  of  which  I  am  not 
acute  enough  to  discern,  and  as  a  sale  to  me  would 
balk  the  very  benevolent  purposes  recently  avowed 
by  you,  I  assume  that  I  shall  not  be  called  upon  to 
make  an  offer. 

"There  is  at  least  one  person  among  those  to 
whom  this  is  addressed 'who  knows  that  in  beginning 
our  operations  in  Lattimore  it  was  understood  that 
we  should  so  manage  affairs  as  to  promote  and  take 
advantage  of  a  bulge  in  values,  and  then  pull  out 
with  a  profit.  Just  what  may  be  his  policy  when  this 
reaches  him  I  cannot,  after  my  experience  with  his 
ability  as  a  lightning  change  artist,  venture  to  pre 
dict;  but  my  last  information  leads  me  to  believe 
that  he  is  championing  the  Utopian  plan  of  running 
the  business,  not  only  past  the  bulge,  but  into  the 
slump.  I,  for  one,  will  not  permit  my  fortune  to  be 
jeopardized  by  so  palpable  a  piece  of  perfidy. 

"I  may  be  allowed  to  add  that  I  am  prepared  to 
take  such  measures  as  may  seem  to  my  legal  advisers 
best  to  protect  my  interests.  I  am  assured  that  the 


284          The  "  Dutchman's  Mill." 

funds  of  one  corporation  will  not  be  permitted  by  the 
courts  to  be  donated  to  the  bolstering  up  of  another, 
over  the  protest  of  a  minority  stockholder.  You 
may  confidently  assume  that  this  advice  will  be  tested 
to  the  utmost  before  the  acts  now  threatened  are 
permitted  to  be  actually  done. 

"I  attach  hereto  a  schedule  of  our  holdings,  with 
the  amount  of  my  interest  in  each,  and  the  price  I 
will  take.  I  trust  that  I  may  have  an  answer  to 
this  at  your  earliest  convenience.  I  beg  to  add 
that  any  great  delay  in  answering  will  be  taken  by 
me  as  a  refusal  on  your  part  to  do  anything,  and  I 
shall  act  accordingly. 

"  Very  respectfully, 

"  J.  BEDFORD  CORNISH." 

"Huh!"  ejaculated  Harper,  "would  he  do  it,  d'ye 
think?" 

"He's  a  very  resolute  man,"  said  Hinckley. 

"He  calculates,"  said  Jim,  "that  if  he  begins 
operations,  he  can  have  receiverships  and  things  of 
that  kind  in  his  interest,  and  in  that  way  swipe  the 
salvage.  On  the  other  hand,  he  must  know  that  his 
loss  would  be  proportioned  to  ours,  and  would  be 
great.  He's  sore,  and  that  counts  for  something. 
I  figure  that  the  chances  are  seven  out  of  ten  that 
he'll  do  it — and  that's  too  strong  a  game  for  us  to 
go  up  against." 

"What  would  be  the  worst  that  could  happen  if 
he  began  proceedings?"  said  I. 

"The  worst,"  answered  Jim  laconically.  "I  don't 
say,  you  know,"  he  went  on  after  a  pause,  "that 


The  "  Dutchman's  Mill."          285 

Cornish  hasn't  some  reason  for  his  position.  From 
a  cur's  standpoint  he's  entirely  right.  We  didn't 
anticipate  the  big  way  in  which  things  have  worked 
out  here,  nor  how  deep  our  roots  would  strike;  and 
we  did  intend  to  cash  in  when  the  wave  came.  And 
a  cur  can't  understand  our  position  in  the  light  of 
these  developments.  He  can't  see  that  in  view  of 
the  number  of  people  sucked  down  with  her  when  a 
great  ship  like  ours  sinks,  nobody  but  a  murderer 
would  needlessly  see  her  wrecked.  What  he  proposes 
is  to  scuttle  her.  Sell  to  him!  I'd  as  soon  sell 
Vassar  College  to  Brigham  Young!" 

This  tragic  humorousness  had  the  double  effect  of 
showing  us  the  dilemma,  and  taking  the  edge  off  the 
horror  of  it. 

"If  it  were  my  case,"  said  Harper,  "I'd  call  him. 
I  don't  believe  he'll  smash  things;  but  you  fellows 
know  each  other  best,  and  I'm  here  to  give  what  aid 
and  comfort  I  can,  and  not  to  direct.  I  accept  your 
judgment  as  to  the  danger.  Now  let's  do  business. 
I've  got  to  get  back  to  Chicago  by  the  next  train, 
and  I  want  to  go  feeling  that  my  stock  in  the  Grain 
Belt  Trust  Company  is  an  asset  and  not  a  liability. 
Let's  do  business." 

"As  for  going  back  on  the  next  train,"  said  Mr. 
Elkins,  "you've  got  another  guess  coming:  this  one 
was  wrong.  As  for  doing  business,  the  first  thing  in 
my  opinion  is  to  examine  the  items  of  this  bill  of 
larceny,  and  see  about  scaling  them  down." 

"We  might  be  able,"  said  I,  "  to  turn  over  properties 
instead  of  cash,  for  some  of  it." 

Elkins  appointed  Harper  and  Hinckley  to  do  ,the 


286          The  "  Dutchman's  Mill." 

negotiating  with  Cornish.  It  was  clear,  he  said,  that 
neither  he  nor  I  was  the  proper  person  to  act.  They 
soon  went  out  on  their  mission  and  left  me  with  Jim. 

"Do  you  see  what  a  snowfall  we've  had?"  he  asked. 
"It  fell  deeper  and  deeper,  until  I  thought  it  would 
never  stop.  No  such  sleighing  for  years.  And 
funny  as  it  may  seem,  it  was  that  that  brought  on 
this  crisis.  Josie  and  I  went  sleighing,  and  the 
hound  was  furious.  Next  time  we  met  he  started 
this  business  going." 

I  was  studying  the  schedule,  and  said  nothing. 
After  a  while  he  began  talking  again,  in  a  slow  manner, 
as  if  the  words  came  lagging  behind  a  labored  train 
of  thought. 

"Remember  the  mill  the  Dutchman  had?... 
Ground  salt,  and  nothing  but  salt  .  .  .  Ours  won't 
grind  anything  but  mortgages  .  .  .  Well,  the  hair 
of  the  dog  must  cure  the  bite  .  .  .  Fight  fire  with 
fire  .  .  .  Similia  similibus  curantur  .  .  .  We  can't  trade 
horses,  nor  methods,  in  the  middle  of  the  ford. 
.  .  .  The  mill  has  got  to  go  on  grinding  mortgages 
until  we're  carried  over;  and  Hinckley  and  the 
Grain  Belt  Trust  must  float  'em.  Of  course  the 
infernal  mill  ground  salt  until  it  sent  the  whole 
shooting-match  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea;  but  you 
mustn't  be  misled  by  analogies.  The  Dutchman 
hadn't  any  good  old  Al  to  lose  telegrams  in  an 
absent-minded  way  where  they  would  do  the  most 
good,  and  sell  railroads  to  old  man  Pendleton  .  .  . 
As  for  us,  it's  the  time-worn  case  of  electing  between 
the  old  sheep  and  the  lamb.  We'll  take  the  adult 
mutton,  and  go  the  whole  hog  .  .  .  And  if  we  lose, 


The  «  Dutchman's  Mill."          287 

the  tail'll  have  to  go  with  the  hide  .  .  .  But  we  won't 
lose,  Al,  we  won't  lose.  There  isn't  treason  enough 
in  all  the  storehouses  of  hell  to  balk  or  defeat  us.  It's 
a  question  of  courage  and  resolution  and  confidence, 
and  imparting  all  those  feelings  to  every  one  else. 
There  isn't  malice  enough,  even  if  it  were  a  whole 
pack,  instead  of  one  lone  hyena,  to  put  out  the  fires 
in  those  furnaces  over  there,  or  stop  the  wheels  in 
that  flume,  or  make  our  streets  grow  grass.  The 
things  we've  built  are  going  to  stay  built,  and  the 
word  of  Lattimore  will  stand ! ' ' 
"My  hand  on  that!"  said  I. 

There  was  little  in  the  way  of  higgling :  for  Cornish 
proudly  refused  much  to  discuss  matters;  and 
when  we  found  what  we  must  pay  to  prevent  the 
explosion,  it  sickened  us.  Jim  strongly  urged  upon 
Harper  the  taking  of  Cornish's  shares. 

'No,"  said  Harper,  "the  Frugality  and  Indemnity  is 
too  good  a  thing  to  drop;  and  I  can't  carry  both. 
But  if  you  can  show  me  how,  within  a  short  time, 
you  can  pay  it  back,  I'll  find  you  the  cash  you  lack." 

We  could  not  wait  for  the  two  millions  from  Pen- 
dleton;  and  the  interim  must  be  bridged  over  by 
any  desperate  means.  We  took,  for  the  moment 
only,  the  funds  advanced  through  Harper;  and 
Cornish  took  his  price. 

The  day  after  Harper  went  away  we  were  busy  all 
day  long,  drawing  notes  and  mortgages.  Every 
unincumbered  piece  of  our  property,  the  orts,  dregs, 
and  offcast  of  our  operations,  were  made  the  subjects 
of  transfers  to  the  rag-tag  and  bobtail  of  Lattimore 


288          The  "  Dutchman's  Mill." 

society.  A  lot  worth  little  or  nothing  was  con 
veyed  to  Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry  for  a  great  nominal 
price,  and  a  mortgage  for  from  two-thirds  to  three- 
fourths  of  the  sum  given  back  by  this  straw-man 
purchaser.  Our  mill  was  grinding  mortgages. 

I  do  not  expect  that  any  one  will  say  that  this 
course  was  justified  or  justifiable;  but,  if  anything 
can  excuse  it,  the  terrible  difficulty  of  our  position 
ought  to  be  considered  in  mitigation,  if  not  excuse. 
Pressed  upon  from  without,  and  wounded  by  blows 
dealt  in  the  dark  from  within;  with  dreadful  failure 
threatening,  and  with  brilliant  success,  and  the 
averting  of  widespread  calamity  as  the  reward 
of  only  a  little  delay,  we  used  the  only  expedient  at 
hand,  and  fought  the  battle  through.  We  were  caught 
in  the  mighty  swirl  of  a  modern  business  maelstrom, 
and,  with  unreasoning  reflexes,  clutched  at  man  or 
log  indifferently,  as  we  felt  the  waters  rising  over  us; 
and  broadcast  all  over  the  East  were  sown  the  slips 
of  paper  ground  out  by  our  mill,  through  the  spout  of 
the  Grain  Belt  Trust  Company;  and  wherever  they 
fell  they  were  seized  upon  by  the  banks,  which  had 
through  years  of  experience  learned  to  look  upon  our 
notes  and  bonds  as  good. 

"Past  the  bulge,"  quoted  Jim,  "and  into  the 
slump!  We'll  see  what  the  whelp  says  when  he 
finds  that,  in  spite  of  all  his  attempts  to  scuttle, 
there  isn't  going  to  be  any  slump!" 

By  which  observation  it  will  appear  that,  as  our 
operations  began  to  bring  in  returns  in  almost  their 
old  abundance,  our  courage  rose.  At  the  very  last, 
some  bank  failures  in  New  York,  and  a  bad  day  on 


The  "Dutchman's  Mill."          289 

'Change  in  Chicago,  cut  off  the  stream,  and  we  had 
to  ask  Harper  to  carry  over  a  part  of  the  Frugality 
and  Indemnity  loan  until  we  could  settle  with  Pendle- 
ton;  but  this  was  a  small  matter  running  into  only 
five  figures. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  we  saw  only  a  part  of  the 
situation  that  our  courage  rose.  We  saw  things  at 
Lattimore  with  vivid  clearness.  But  we  failed  to 
see  that  like  centers  of  stress  were  sprinkled  all  over 
the  map,  from  ocean  to  ocean;  that  in  the  mountains 
of  the  South  were  the  Lattimores  of  iron,  steel,  coal, 
and  the  winter-resort  boom;  and  in  the  central  val 
leys  were  other  Lattimores  like  ours;  that  among 
the  peaks  and  canyons  further  r/cst  were  the  Latti 
mores  of  mines;  that  along  the  Pacific  were  the 
Lattimores  of  harbors  and  deep-water  terminals; 
that  every  one  of  these  Lattimores  had  in  the  East 
and  in  Europe  its  clientage  of  Barr-Smiths,  Wick- 
ershams,  and  Dorrs,  feeding  the  flames  of  the  fever 
with  other  people's  money;  and  that  in  every  village 
and  factory,  town  and  city,  where  wealth  had  piled 
up,  seeking  investment,  were  the  "captives  below 
decks,"  who,  in  the  complex  machinery  of  this  end-of- 
the-century  life,  were  made  or  marred  by  the  same 
influences  which  made  or  marred  us. 

The  low  area  had  swept  across  the  seas,  and  now 
rested  on  us.  The  clouds  were  charged  with  the 
thunder  and  lightning  of  disaster.  Almost  any  acci 
dental  disturbance  might  precipitate  a  crash.  Had 
we  known  all  this,  as  we  now  know  it,  the  conscious 
ness  of  the  tragical  race  we  were  running  to  reach  the 
harbor  of  a  consummated  sale  to  Pendleton  might 


290          The  "  Dutchman's  Mill." 

have  paralyzed  our  efforts.  Sometimes  one  may 
cross  in  the  dark,  on  narrow  footing,  a  chasm  the 
abyss  of  which,  if  seen,  would  dizzily  draw  one  down 
to  destruction. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
be  JBcflinntnfi  of  tbe 


COURT  parties  and  court  factions  are  always 
known  to  the  populace,  even  down  to  the  groom 
and  scullions.  So  the  defection  of  Cornish  soon 
became  a  matter  of  gossip  at  bars,  in  stables,  and 
especially  about  the  desks  of  real-estate  offices. 
Had  it  been  a  matter  of  armed  internecine  strife, 
the  Elkins  faction  would  have  mustered  an  over 
whelming  majority;  for  Jim's  bluff  democratic 
ways,  and  his  apparent  identity  of  fibre  with  the 
mass  of  the  people,  would  have  made  him  a  popular 
idol,  had  he  been  a  thousand  times  a  railroad  president. 

While  these  rumors  of  a  feud  were  floating  about, 
Captain  Tolliver  went  to  Jim's  office  several  times, 
dressed  with  great  care,  and  sat  in  silence,  and  in 
stiff  and  formal  dignity,  for  a  matter  of  five  minutes 
or  so,  and  then  retired,  with  the  suggestion  that  if 
there  was  any  way  in  which  he  could  serve  Mr. 
Elkins  he  should  be  happy. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  Jim  to  me,  "that  I'm  afraid 
Hamlet's  'bugs  and  goblins'  are  troubling  Tolliver  ; 
in  other  words,  that  he's  getting  bughouse  ?" 

"No,"  said  I;  "while  I  haven't  the  slightest  idea 

291 


292         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

what  ails  him,  you'll  find  that  it's  something  quite 
natural  for  him  when  you  get  a  full  view  of  his  case." 

Finally,  Jim,  in  thanking  him  for  his  proffered 
assistance,  inquired  diplomatically  after  the  thing 
which  weighed  upon  the  Captain's  mind. 

"I  may  be  mistaken,  suh,"  said  he,  drawing  him 
self  up,  and  thrusting  one  hand  into  the  tightly- 
buttoned  breast  of  his  black  Prince  Albert,  "entiahly 
mistaken  in  the  premises;  but  I  have  the  impression 
that  diffe'ences  of  a  pussonal  nature  ah  in  existence 
between  youahself  and  a  gentleman  whose  name  in 
this  connection  I  prefuh  to  leave  unmentioned. 
Such  being  the  case,  I  assume  that  occasion  may  and 
naturally  will  arise  foh  the  use  of  a  friend,  suh,  who 
unde'stands  the  code — the  code,  suh — and  is  not 
without  experience  in  affaiahs  of  honah.  I  recognize 
the  fact  that  in  cehtain  exigencies  nothing,  by 
Gad,  but  pistols,  ovah  a  measu'ed  distance,  meets 
the  case.  In  such  an  event,  suh,  I  shall  be  mo' 
than  happy  to  suhve  you;  mo'  than  happy,  by  the 
Lord!" 

"Captain,"  said  Jim  feelingly,  "you're  a  good 
fellow  and  a  true  friend,  and  I  promise  you  I  shall 
have  no  other  second." 

"In  that  promise,"  replied  the  Captain  gravely 
"you  confeh  an  honah,  suh!" 

After  this  it  was  thought  wise  to  permit  the  papers 
to  print  the  story  of  Cornish's  retirement;  other 
wise  the  Captain  might  have  fomented  an  insurrection. 

"The  reasons  for  this  step  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Cor 
nish  are  purely  personal,"  said  the  Herald.  "While 
retaining  his  feeling  of  interest  in  Lattimore,  his 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        293 

desire  to  engage  in  certain  broader  fields  of  promo 
tion  and  development  in  the  tropics  had  made  it 
seem  to  him  necessary  to  lay  down  the  work  here 
which  up  to  this  time  he  has  so  well  done.  He  will 
still  remain  a  citizen  of  our  city.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  we  shall  not  lose  Mr.  Cornish,  we  shall  gain  the 
active  and  powerful  influence  of  Mr.  Charles  Harper, 
the  president  of  the  Frugality  and  Indemnity  Life 
Insurance  Company.  It  is  thus  that  Lattimore 
rises  constantly  to  higher  prosperity,  and  wields 
greater  and  greater  power.  The  remarkable  activity 
lately  noted  in  the  local  real-estate  market,  espe 
cially  in  the  sales  of  unconsidered  trifles  of  land  at 
high  prices,  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  strengthening 
of  conditions  by  these  steps  in  the  ascent  of  the 
ladder  of  progress." 

Cornish,  however,  was  not  without  his  partisans. 
Cecil  Barr-Smith  almost  quarreled  with  Antonia 
because  she  struck  Cornish  off  her  books,  Cecil  insist 
ing  that  he  was  an  entirely  decent  chap.  In  this 
position  Cecil  was  in  accord  with  the  clubmen  of  the 
younger  sort,  who  had  much  in  common  with  Cor 
nish,  and  little  with  the  overworked  and  busy 
railway  president.  Even  Giddings,  to  me,  seemed 
to  remain  unduly  intimate  with  Cornish;  but  this 
did  not  affect  the  utterances  of  his  paper,  which  still 
maintained  what  he  called  the  policy  of  boost. 

The  behavior  of  Josie,  however,  was  enigmatical. 
Cornish's  attentions  to  her  redoubled,  while  Jim 
seemed  dropped  out  of  the  race — and  therefore  my 
wife's  relations  with  Miss  Trescott  were  subjected  to 
a  severe  strain.  Naturally,  being  a  matron,  and  of  the 


294         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

age  of  thirty-odd  years,  she  put  on  some  airs  with 
her  younger  friend,  still  in  the  chrysalis  of  maiden 
hood.  Sometimes,  in  a  sweet  sort  of  a  way,  she 
almost  domineered  over  her.  On  this  Elkins- 
Cornish  matter,  however,  Josie  held  her  at  arms' 
length,  and  refused  to  make  her  position  plain;  and 
Alice  nursed  that  simulated  resentment  which  one 
dear  friend  sometimes  feels  toward  another,  because 
of  a  real  or  imagined  breach  of  the  obligations  of 
reciprocity. 

One  night,  as  we  sat  about  the  grate  in  the  Trescott 
library,  some  veiled  insinuations  on  Alice's  part 
caused  a  turning  of  the  worm. 

"If  there  is  anything  you  want  to  say,  Alice," 
said  Josie,  "there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why 
you  shouldn't  speak  out.  I  have  asked  your  advice 
— yours  and  Albert's — frequently,  having  really  no 
one  else  to  trust ;  and  therefore  I  am  willing  to  hear 
your  reproof,  if  you  have  it  for  me.  What  is  it?" 

"Oh,  Josie,"  said  I,  seeking  cover.  "You  are  too 
sensitive.  There  isn't  anything,  is  there,  Alice?" 

Here  I  scowled  violently,  and  shook  my  head  at 
my  wife;  but  all  to  no  effect. 

"Yes,  there  is,"  said  Alice.  "We  have  a  dear  friend, 
the  best  in  the  world,  and  he  has  an  enemy.  The 
whole  town  is  divided  in  allegiance  between  them, 
about  nine  on  one  side  to  one  on  the  other — " 

"Which  proves  nothing,"  said  Josie. 

"And  now,"  Alice  went  on,  "you,  who  have  had 
every  opportunity  of  seeing,  and  ought  to  know, 
that  one  of  them  is,  in  every  look,  and  thought,  and 
act,  a  man,  while  the  other  is — " 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        295 

"A  friend  of  mine  and  of  my  mother's,"  said 
Josie;  "please  omit  the  character-sketch.  And 
remember  that  I  refuse  even  to  consider  these 
business  differences.  Each  claims  to  be  right;  and 
I  shall  judge  them  by  other  things." 

"Business  differences,  indeed!"  scoffed  Alice, 
albeit  a  little  impressed  by  the  girl's  dignity.  "As 
if  you  did  not  know  what  these  differences  came 
from!  But  it  isn't  because  you  remain  neutral 
that  we  com — " 

"  You  complain,  Alice,"  said  I;  "I  am  distinctly 
out  of  this." 

"That  I  complain,  then,"  amended  Alice  re 
proachfully.  "It  is  because  you  dismiss  the  man 
and  keep  the — other!  You  may  say  I  have  no 
right  to  be  heard  in  this,  but  I'm  going  to  complain 
Josie  Trescott,  just  the  same!" 

This  seemed  to  approach  actual  conflict,  and  I 
was  frightened.  Had  it  been  two  men,  I  should 
have  thought  nothing  of  it,  but  with  women  such 
differences  cut  deeper  than  with  us.  Josie  stepped 
to  her  writing-desk  and  took  from  it  a  letter. 

"We  may  as  well  clear  this  matter  up,"  said  she, 
"for  it  has  stood  between  us  for  a  long  time.  I 
think  that  Mr.  Elkins  will  not  feel  that  any  confi 
dences  are  violated  by  my  showing  you  this — you 
who  have  been  my  dearest  friends — " 

She  stopped  for  no  reason,  unless  it  was  agitation. 

"Are,"  said  I,  "I  hope,  not  'have  been."' 

"Well,"  said  she,  "read  the  letter,  and  then  tell 
me  who  has  been  'dismissed.'" 

I  shrank  from  reading  it;    but  Alice  was  deter- 


296         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

mined  to  know  all.  It  was  dated  the  day  before  I 
left  New  York. 

"Dear  Josie,"  it  read,  "I  have  told  you  so  many 
times  that  I  love  you  that  it  is  an  old  story  to  you; 
yet  I  must  say  it  once  more.  Until  that  night 
when  we  brought  your  father  home,  I  was  never 
able  to  understand  why  you  would  never  say  defi 
nitely  yes  or  no  to  me ;  but  I  felt  that  you  could  not 
be  expected  to  understand  my  feeling  that  the  best 
years  of  our  lives  were  wasting — you  are  so  much 
younger  than  I — and  so  I  hoped  on.  Sometimes 
I  feared  that  somebody  else  stood  in  the  way,  and 
do  fear  it  now,  but  that  alone  would  have  been  a 
much  simpler  thing,  and  of  that  I  could  not  com 
plain.  But  on  that  fearful  night  you  said  some 
thing  which  hurt  me  more  than  anything  else  could, 
because  it  was  an  accusation  of  which  I  could  not 
clear  myself  in  the  court  of  my  own  conscience — 
except  so  far  as  to  say  that  I  never  dreamed  of  doing 
your  father  anything  but  good.  Surely,  surely 
you  must  feel  this! 

"Since  that  time,  however,  you  have  been  so  kind 
to  me  that  I  have  become  sure  that  you  see  that 
terrible  tragedy  as  I  do,  and  acquit  me  of  all  blame, 
except  that  of  blindly  setting  in  motion  the  machinery 
which  did  the  awful  deed.  This  is  enough  for  you 
to  forgive,  God  knows;  but  I  have  thought  lately 
that  you  had  forgiven  it.  You  have  been  very  kind 
and  good  to  me,  and  your  presence  and  influence 
have  made  me  look  at  things  in  a  different  way 
from  that  of  years  ago,  and  I  am  now  doing  things 
which  ought  to  be  credited  to  you,  so  far  as  they  are 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        297 

good.  As  for  the  bad,  I  must  bear  the  blame 
myself!" 

Thus  far  Alice  had  read  aloud. 

"Don't,  don't,"  said  Josie,  hiding  her  face.  " Don't 
read  it  aloud,  please!  " 

"But  now  I  am  writing,  not  to  explain  anything 
which  has  taken  place,  but  to  set  me  right  as  to  the 
future.  You  gave  me  reason  to  think,  when  we  met, 
that  I  might  have  my  answer.  Things  which  I 
cannot  explain  have  occurred,  which  may  turn  out 
very  evilly  for  me,  and  for  any  one  connected 
with  me.  Therefore,  until  this  state  of  things 
passes,  I  shall  not  see  you.  I  write  this,  not  that  I 
think  you  will  care  much,  but  that  you  may  not 
believe  that  I  have  changed  in  my  feelings  toward 
you.  If  my  time  ever  comes,  and  I  believe  it  will, 
and  that  before  very  long,  you  will  find  me  harder 
t )  dispose  of  without  an  answer  than  I  have  been 
in  the  past.  I  shall  claim  you  in  spite  of  every  foe 
that  may  rise  up  to  keep  you  from  me.  You  may 
change,  but  I  shall  not. 

' '  '  Love  is  not  love 

Which  alters  when  it  alteration  finds.' 

And  mine  will  not  alter.     J.  R.  E." 

"My  dear,"  said  Alice  very  humbly,  "I  beg 
your  pardon.  I  have  misjudged  you.  Will  you 
forgive  me?" 

Josie  came  to  take  her  letter,  and,  in  lieu  of  other 
answer,  stood  with  her  arm  about  Alice's  waist. 

"And  now,"  said  Alice,  "have  you  no  other  confi 
dences  for  us?" 


298         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

"No!"  she  cried,  "no!  there  is  nothing  more! 
Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  believe  me!  But, 
now,  confidence  for  confidence,  Albert,  what  is  this 
great  danger?  Is  it  anything  for  which  any  one 
here — for  which  I  am  to  blame?  Does  it  threaten 
any  one  else?  Can't  something  be  done  about  it? 
Tell  me,  tell  me!" 

"I  think,"  said  I,  "that  the  letter  was  written 
before  my  telegram  from  New  York  came,  and 
after — some  great  difficulties  came  upon  us.  I 
don't  believe  he  would  have  written  it  five  hours 
later;  and  I  don't  believe  he  would  have  written  it 
to  any  one  in  anything  but  the  depression  of — the 
feeling  he  has  for  you." 

"If  that  is  true,"  said  she,  "why  does  he  still 
avoid  me?  Why  does  he  still  avoid  me?  You 
have  not  told  me  all;  or  there  is  something  you 
do  not  know." 

As  we  went  home,  Alice  kept  referring  to  Jim's 
letter,  and  was  as  much  troubled  by  it  as  was 
Josie. 

"How  do  you  explain  it?"  she  asked. 

"I  explain  it,"  said  I,  "by  ranging  it  with  the 
well-known  phenomenon  of  the  love-sick  youth  of 
all  lands  and  in  every  time,  who  revels  in  the  thought 
of  incurring  danger  or  death,  and  heralding  the 
fact  to  his  loved  one.  Even  Jim  is  not  exempt  from 
the  feelings  of  the  boy  who  rejoices  in  delicious  tears 
at  the  thought  of  being  found  cold  and  dead  on  the 
doorstep  of  the  cruel  maiden  of  his  dreams.  And 
that  letter,  with  a  slight  substratum  of  fact,  is  the 
result.  Don't  bother  about  it  for  a  moment." 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        299 

This  answer  may  not  have  been  completely  frank, 
or  quite  expressive  of  my  views;  but  I  was  tired  of 
the  subject.  It  was  hardly  a  time  to  play  with 
mammets  or  to  tilt  with  lips,  and  it  seemed  that 
the  matter  might  wait.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
the  pettishness  of  nervousness  among  us  at  that 
time,  and  I  had  my  full  share  of  it.  Insomnia  was 
prevalent,  and  gray  hairs  increased  and  multiplied. 
The  time  was  drawing  near  for  our  meeting  with 
Pendleton  in  Chicago.  We  had  advices  that  he 
was  coming  in  from  the  West,  on  his  return  from  a 
long  journey  of  inspection,  and  would  pass  over  his 
Pacific  Division.  We  asked  him  to  run  down  to 
Lattimore  over  our  road,  but  Smith  answered  that 
the  running  schedule  could  not  be  altered. 

There  seemed  to  be  no  reason  for  doubting  that 
the  proposed  contract  would  be  ratified;  for  the 
last  desperate  rally  on  our  part  appeared  to  have 
put  a  crash  out  of  the  question,  for  some  time  at 
least.  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given;  and  so 
long  as  we  were  supposed  to  possess  power,  we  felt 
that  we  were  safe.  Yet  the  blow  dealt  by  Cornish 
had  maimed  us,  no  matter  how  well  we  hid  our 
hurt;  and  we  were  all  too  keenly  conscious  of  the 
law  of  the  hunt,  by  which  it  is  the  wounded  buffalo 
which  is  singled  out  and  dragged  down  by  the 
wolves. 

On  Wednesday  Jim  and  I  were  to  start  for  Chi 
cago,  where  Mr.  Pendleton  would  be  found  awaiting 
us.  On  Sunday  the  weather,  which  had  been  cold 
and  snowy  for  weeks,  changed;  and  it  blew  from 
the  southeast,  raw  and  chill,  but  thawy.  All  day 


300         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

Monday  the  warmth  increased;  and  the  farmers 
coming  into  town  reported  great  ponds  of  water 
dammed  up  in  the  swales  and  hollows  against  the 
enormous  snow-drifts.  Another  warm  day,  and  these 
waters  would  break  through,  and  the  streams  would 
go  free  in  freshets.  Tuesday  dawned  without  a  trace 
of  frost,  and  still  the  strong  warm  wind  blew;  but 
now  it  was  from  the  east,  and  as  I  left  the  carriage 
to  enter  my  office  I  was  wet  by  a  scattering  fall  of 
rain.  In  a  few  moments,  as  I  dictated  my  morning's 
letters,  my  stenographer  called  attention  to  the  beat 
ing  on  the  window  of  a  strong  and  persistent  down 
pour. 

Elkins,  too  much  engrossed  in  his  thoughts  to 
be  able  to  confine  himself  to  the  details  of  his  busi 
ness,  came  into  my  office,  where,  sometimes  sitting 
and  sometimes  walking  uneasily  about,  he  seemed 
to  get  some  sort  of  comfort  from  my  presence.  He 
watched  the  rain,  as  one  seeing  visions. 

"By  morning,"  said  he,  "there  ought  to  be  ducks 
in  Alderson's  pond.  Can't  we  do  our  chores  early 
and  get  into  the  blind  before  daylight,  and  lay  for 
'em?" 

' '  I  heard  Canada  geese  honking  overhead  last 
night,"  said  I. 

"What  time  last  night?" 

"Two  o'clock." 

"Well,  that  lets  us  out  on  the  Alderson's  pond 
project,"  said  he;  "the  boys  who  hunted  there 
weren't  out  walking  at  two.  In  those  days  they 
slept.  It  can't  be  that  we're  the  fellows  .  .  .  Why, 
there's  Antonia,  coming  in  through  the  rain!" 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        301 

"I  wonder,"  said  I,  "if  la  grippe  isn't  taking  a 
bad  turn  with  her  father." 

She  came  in,  shedding  the  rain  from  her  mackintosh 
like  a  water-fowl,  radiant  with  health  and  the  air  of 
outdoors. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  she  gaily,  "who  but  myself 
would  come  out  in  anything  but  a  diving-suit  to-day! " 

"It's  almost  an  even  thing,"  said  Jim,  "between 
a  calamity,  which  brings  you,  and  good  fortune, 
which  keeps  you  away.  I  hope  it's  only  your  ordinary 
defiance  of  the  elements." 

"The  fact  is,"  said  she,  "that  it's  a  very  funny 
errand.  But  don't  laugh  at  me  if  it's  absurd, 
please.  It's  about  Mr.  Cornish." 

"Yes!"  said  Jim,  "what  of  him?" 

"You  know  papa  has  been  kept  in  by  la  grippe 
for  a  day  or  so,"  she  went  on,  "and  we  haven't  been 
allowing  people  to  see  him  very  much;  but  Mr. 
Cornish  has  been  in  two  or  three  times,  and  every 
time  when  he  went  away  papa  was  nervous  and 
feverish.  To-day,  after  he  left,  papa  asked — 
here  she  looked  at  Mr.  Elkins,  as  he  stood  gravely 
regarding  her,  and  went  on  with  redder  cheeks 
-"asked  me  some  questions,  which  led  to  a  long 
talk  between  us,  in  which  I  found  out  that  he  has 
almost  persuaded  papa  to — to  change  his  business 
connections  completely." 

"Yes!"  said  Jim.     "Change,  how?" 

"Why,  that  I  didn't  quite  understand,"  said 
Antonia,  "except  that  there  was  logwood  and 
mahogany  and  Mexico  in  it,  and — and  that  he  had 
made  papa  feel  very  differently  toward  you.  After 


302         The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

what  has  taken  place  recently  I  knew  that  was 
wrong — you  know  papa  is  not  as  firm  in  his  ideas 
as  he  used  to  be;  and  I  felt  that  he — and  you,  were 
in  danger,  somehow.  At  first  I  was  afraid  of  being 
laughed  at — why,  I'd  rather  you'd  laugh  at  me  than 
to  look  like  that!" 

"You're  a  good  girl,  Antonia,"  said  Jim,  "and 
have  done  the  right  thing,  and  a  great  favor  to  us. 
Thank  you  very  much;  and  please  excuse  me  a 
moment  while  I  send  a  telegram.  Please  wait 
until  I  come  back." 

"No,  I'm  going,  Albert,"  said  she,  when  he  was 
gone  to  his  own  office.  "But  first  you  ought  to 
know  that  man  told  papa  something — about  me. " 

"How  do  you  know  about  this?"  said  I. 

"Papa  asked  me — if  I  had — any  complaints  to 
make — of  Mr.  Elkins's  treatment  of  me!  What  do 
you  suppose  he  dared  to  tell  him?" 

"What  did  you  tell  your  father?"  I  asked. 

"What  could  I  tell  him  but  'No'?"  she  exclaimed. 
"And  I  just  had  a  heart-to-heart  talk  with  papa 
about  Mr.  Cornish  and  the  way  he  has  acted;  and  if 
his  fever  hadn't  begun  to  run  up  so,  I'd  have  got  the 
rubber,  or  Peruvian-bark  idea,  or  whatever  it  was, 
entirely  out  of  his  mind.  Poor  papa!  It  breaks 
my  heart  to  see  him  changing  so!  And  so  I  gave 
him  a  sleeping-capsule,  and  came  down  through  this 
splendid  rain;  and  now  I'm  going!  But,  mind,  this 
last  is  a  secret." 

And  so  she  went  away. 

"Where's  Antonia?"  asked  Jim,  returning, 

"Gone,"  said  I 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        303 

"  I  wanted  to  talk  further  about  this  matter." 

"I  don't  like  it,  Jim.  It  means  that  the  cruel  war 
is  not  over." 

"Wait  until  we  pass  Wednesday,"  said  Jim,  "and 
we'll  wring  his  neck.  What  a  poisonous  devil,  to 
try  and  wean  from  us,  to  his  ruin,  an  old  man  in  his 
dotage! — I  wish  Antonia  had  stayed.  I  went  out 
to  set  the  boys  wiring  for  news  of  washouts  between 
here  and  Chicago.  We  mustn't  miss  that  trip,  if 
we  have  to  start  to-night.  This  rain  will  make 
trouble  with  the  track. — No,  I  don't  like  it,  either. 
Wasn't  it  thoughtful  of  Antonia  to  come  down!  We 
can  line  Hinckley  up  all  right,  now  we  know  it;  but 
if  it  had  gone  on — we  can't  stand  a  third  solar-plexus 
blow  .  .  ." 

The  sky  darkened,  until  we  had  to  turn  on  the 
lights,  and  the  rain  fell  more  and  more  heavily. 
Once  or  twice  there  were  jarring  rolls  of  distant 
thunder.  To  me  there  was  something  boding  and 
ominous  in  the  weather.  The  day  wore  on  intermina 
bly  in  the  quiet  of  a  business  office  under  such  a  sky. 
Elkins  sent  in  a  telegram  which  he  had  received 
that  no  trouble  with  water  was  looked  for  along  our 
way  to  Chicago,  which  was  by  the  Halliday  line.  As 
the  dark  day  was  lowering  down  to  its  darker  close, 
I  went  into  President  Elkins 's  office  to  take  him 
home  with  me.  As  I  entered  through  my  private 
door,  I  saw  Giddings  coming  in  through  the  outer 
entrance. 

" Say,"  said  he,  "I  wanted  to  see  you  two  together. 
I  know  you  have  some  business  with  Pendleton,  and 
you've  promised  the  boys  a  story  for  Thursday  or 


304        The  Beginning  of  the  End. 

Friday.      Now,    you've    been   a   little   sore   on  me 
because  I  haven't  absolutely  cut  Cornish." 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Jim.  "You  must  have  a  poor 
opinion  of  our  intelligence." 

"Well,  you  had  no  cause  to  feel  that  way,"  he 
went  on,  "because,  as  a  newspaperman,  I'm  supposed 
to  have  few  friends  and  no  enemies.  Besides,  you 
can't  tell  what  a  man  might  sink  to,  deprived  all  at 
once  of  the  friendship  of  three  such  men  as  you 
fellows!" 

"Quite  right,"  said  I;  "but  get  to  the  point." 

"I'm  getting  to  it,"  said  he.  "I  violate  no  confi 
dence  when  I  say  that  Cornish  has  got  it  in  for 
your  crowd  in  great  shape.  The  point  is  involved  in 
that.  I  don't  know  what  your  little  game  is  with 
old  Pendleton,  but  whatever  it  is,  Cornish  thinks 
he  can  queer  it,  and  at  the  same  time  reap  some 
advantages  from  the  old  man,  if  he  can  have  a 
few  minutes'  talk  with  Pen  before  you  do.  And  he's 
going  to  do  it,  if  he  can.  Now,  I  figure,  with  my  usual 
correctness  of  ratiocination,  that  your  scheme  is 
going  to  be  better  for  the  town,  and  therefore  for 
the  Herald,  than  his,  and  hence  this  disclosure,  which 
I  freely  admit  has  some  of  the  ear-marks  of  bad  form. 
Not  that  I  blame  Cornish,  or  am  saying  anything 
against  him,  you  know.  His  course  is  ideally  lagoan: 
he  stands  in  with  Pendleton,  benefits  himself,  and 
gets  even  with  you  all  at  one  fell— 

'Stop  this  chatter!"  cried  Jim,  flying  at  him  and 
seizing  him  by  the  collar.  "Tell  me  how  you  know 
this,  and  how  much  you  know!" 

"My   God!"   said  Giddings,   his  lightness  all  de- 


The  Beginning  of  the  End.        305 

parted,  "is  it  as  vital  as  that?  He  told  me  himself. 
Said  it  was  something  he  wouldn't  put  on  paper 
and  must  tell  Pendleton  by  word  of  mouth,  and  he's 
on  the  train  that  just  pulled  out  for  Chicago." 

"He'll  beat  us  there  by  twelve  hours,"  said  I, 
"  and  he  can  do  all  he  threatens!  Jim,  we're  gone!" 

Elkins  leaped  to  the  telephone  and  rang  it  furiously. 
There  was  the  ring  of  command  sounding  through 
the  clamor  of  desperate  and  dubious  conflict  in  his 
voice. 

"Give  me  the  L.  &  G.  W.  dispatcher's  office, 
quick!"  said  he.  "I  can't  remember  the  number 
.  .  .  it's  420,  four,  two,  naught.  Is  this  Agnew? 
This  is  Elkins  talking.  Listen!  Without  a  moment's 
delay,  I  want  you  to  find  out  when  President  Pendle- 
ton's  special,  east-bound  on  his  Pacific  Division, 
passes  Elkins  Junction.  I'm  at  my  office,  and  will 
wait  for  the  information  here  .  .  .  Don't  let  me 
wait  long,  please,  understand?  And,  say!  Call 
Solan  to  the  'phone  ...  Is  this  Solan?  Mr.  Solan, 
get  out  the  best  engine  you've  got  in  the  yards, 
couple  to  it  a  caboose,  and  put  on  a  crew  to  make  a 
run  to  Elkins  Junction,  as  quick  as  God  11  let  you !  Do 
you  understand?  Give  me  Schwartz  and  his  fire 
man  .  .  .  Yes,  and  Corcoran,  too.  Andy,  this  is  a  case 
of  life  and  death — of  life  and  death,  do  you  under 
stand?  See  that  the  line's  clear,  and  no  stops. 
I've  got  to  connect  east  at  Elkins  Junction  with  a 
special  on  that  line.  .  .  .  Got  to,  d'ye  see?  Have  the 
special  wait  at  the  State  Street  crossing  until  we  come 
aboard!" 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
3bat  ILast  THHelrJ)  JSattlc  in  tbe  iciest. 

THERE  was  still  some  remnant  of  daylight  left  when 
we  stepped  from  a  closed  carriage  at  the  State  Street 
crossing  and  walked  to  the  train  prepared  for  us. 
The  rain  had  all  but  ceased,  and  what  there  was 
came  out  of  some  northern  quarter  of  the  heavens 
mingled  with  stinging  pellets  of  sleet,  driven  by  a 
fierce  gale.  The  turn  of  the  storm  had  come,  and  I 
was  wise  enough  in  weather-lore  to  see  that  its  rear 
guard  was  sweeping  down  upon  us  in  all  the  bitter 
ness  of  a  winter's  tempest. 

Beyond  the  tracks  I  could  see  the  murky  water 
of  Brushy  Creek  racing  toward  the  river  under  the 
State  Street  bridge. 

"I  believe,"  said  I,  "that  the  surface-water  from 
above  is  showing  the  flow  from  the  flume." 

"Yes,"  said  Jim  absently,  "it  must  be  about  ready 
to  break  up.  I  hope  we  can  get  out  of  the  valley 
before  dark." 

The  engine  stood  ready,  the  superabundant 
power  popping  off  in  a  deafening  hiss.  The  fireman 
threw  open  the  furnace-door  and  stoked  the  fire  as  we 
approached.  Engineer  Schwartz,  the  same  who 
had  pulled  us  over  the  road  that  first  trip,  was  stand- 

306 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.    307 

ing  by  his  engine,  talking  with  ourold  conductor, 
Corcoran. 

"Here's  a  message  for  you,  Mr.  Elkins,"  said 
Corcoran,  handing  Jim  a  yellow  paper,  "from 
Agnew." 

We  read  it  by  Corcoran 's  lantern,  for  it  was  getting 
dusky  for  the  reading  of  telegraph  operator's  script. 

"Water  out  over  bottoms  from  Hinckley  to  the 
Hills,"  so  went  the  message.  "Flood  coming  down 
valley.  Snow  and  drifting  wind  reported  from 
Elkins  Junction  and  Josephine.  Look  out  for 
washouts,  and  culverts  and  bridges  damaged  by 
running  ice  and  water.  Pendleton  special  fully 
up  to  running  schedule,  at  Willow  Springs." 

"Who've  you  got  up  there,  Schwartz?  Oh,  is  that 
you,  Ole?"  said  Mr.  Elkins.  "Good!  Boys,  to 
night  our  work  has  got  to  be  done  in  time,  or  we  might 
as  well  go  to  bed.  It's  a  case  of  four  aces  or  a  four- 
flush,  and  no  intermediate  stations.  Mr.  Pendleton's 
special  will  pass  the  Junction  right  around  nine — 
not  ten  minutes  either  way.  Get  us  there  before  that. 
If  you  can  do  it  safely,  all  right;  but  get  us  there. 
And  remember  that  the  regular  rule  in  railroading 
is  reversed  to-night,  and  we  are  ready  to  take  any 
chance  rather  than  miss — any  chances,  mind!" 

"We're  ready  and  waiting,  Mr.  Elkins,"  said 
Schwartz,  "but  you'll  have  to  get  on,  you  know. 
Looks  like  there  was  time  enough  if  we  keep  the 
wheels  turning,  but  this  snow  and  flood  business  may 
cut  some  figure.  Any  chances,  I  believe  you  said, 
sir.  All  right!  Ready  when  you  are,  Jack." 

"All  aboard  1"  sang  out   Corcoran,   and   with  a 


308   That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

commonplace  ding-dong  of  the  bell,  and  an  every 
day  hiss  of  steam,  which  seemed,  somehow,  out  of 
keeping  with  the  fearful  and  unprecedented  exi 
gency  now  upon  us,  we  moved  out  through  the 
yards,  jolting  over  the  frogs,  out  upon  the  main  line; 
and  soon  began  to  feel  a  cheering  acceleration  in  the 
recurrent  sounds  and  shocks  of  our  flight,  as  Schwartz 
began  rolling  back  the  miles  under  his  flying  wheels. 

We  sat  in  silence  on  the  oil-cloth  cushions  of  the 
seats  which  ran  along  the  sides  of  the  caboose. 
Corcoran,  the  only  person  who  shared  the  car  with 
us,  seemed  to  have  some  psychical  consciousness  of 
the  peril  which  weighed  down  upon  us,  and  moved 
quietly  about  the  car,  or  sat  in  the  cupola,  as  mute 
as  we. 

There  was  no  need  for  speech  between  my  friend 
and  me.  Our  minds,  strenuously  awake,  found  a 
common  conclusion  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case. 
Both  doubtless  had  considered  and  rejected  the  idea 
of  telegraphing  Pendleton  to  wait  for  us  at  the  Junc 
tion.  No  king  upon  his  throne  was  more  absolute 
than  A  very  Pendleton,  and  to  ask  him  to  waste  a 
single  quarter-hour  of  his  time  might  give  great 
offense  to  him  whom  we  desired  to  find  serene  and 
complaisant.  Again,  any  apparent  anxiety  for  haste, 
any  symptom  of  an  attempt  to  rush  his  line  of  de 
fenses,  would  styely  defeat  its  object.  No,  we  must 
quietly  and  casually  board  his  train,  and  secure  the 
signing  of  the  contract  before  we  reached  Chicago,  if 
possible. 

"You  brought  that  paper,  Al?"  said  Jim,  as  if  my 
thoughts  had  been  audible  to  him. 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.    309 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "it's  here." 

"I  think  we'd  better  be  on  our  way  to  St.  Louis," 
said  he.  "He  can  hardly  refuse  to  oblige  us  by 
going  through  the  form  of  signing,  so  as  to  let  us  turn 
south  at  the  river." 

"Very  well,"  said  I,  "St.  Louis — yes." 

Out  past  the  old  Trescott  farm,  now  covered  with 
factories,  cottages,  and  railway  tracks,  leaving  Lyn- 
hurst  Park  off  to  our  left,  curving  with  the  turnings 
of  Brushy  Creek  Valley,  through  which  our  engi 
neers  had  found  such  easy  grades,  dropping  the 
straggling  suburbs  of  the  city  behind  us,  we  flew 
along  the  rails  in  the  waning  twilight  of  this  grew- 
some  day.  On  the  windward  windows  and  the  roof 
rattled  fierce  flights  of  sleet  and  showers  of  cinders 
from  the  engine.  Occasionally  we  felt  the  car 
sway  in  the  howling  gusts  of  wind,  as  we  passed 
some  opening  in  the  hills  and  neared  the  more  level 
prairie.  Stories  of  cars  blown  from  the  rails  flitted 
through  my  mind;  and  in  contemplating  such  an 
accident  my  thoughts  busied  themselves  with  the 
details  of  plans  for  getting  free  from  the  wrecked  car, 
and  pushing  on  with  the  engine,  the  derailing  of  which 
somehow  never  occurred  to  me. 

"We're  slowing  down!"  cried  Jim,  after  a  half- 
hour's  run.  "I  wonder  what's  the  matter!" 

"For  God's  sake,  look  ahead!"  yelled  Corcoran, 
leaping  down  from  the  cupola  and  springing  to  the 
door.  We  followed  him  to  the  platform,  and  each  of 
us  ran  down  on  the  step  and,  swinging  out  by  the 
hand-rail,  peered  ahead  into  the  dusk,  the  sleet 
stinging  our  cheeks  like  shot. 


310  That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

We  were  running  along  the  right  bank  of  the  stream, 
at  a  point  where  the  valley  narrowed  down  to  perhaps 
sixty  rods  of  bottom.  At  the  first  dim  look  before 
us  we  could  see  nothing  unusual,  except  that  the 
background  of  the  scene  looked  somehow  as  if  lifted 
by  a  mirage.  Then  I  noticed  that  up  the  valley, 
instead  of  the  ghostly  suggestions  of  trees  and  hills 
which  bounded  the  vista  in  other  directions,  there 
was  an  appearance  like  that  seen  on  looking  out 
to  sea. 

"The  flood!"  said  Jim.  "He's  not  going  to  stop, 
is  he  Corcoran?" 

At  this  moment  came  at  once  the  explanation  of 
Schwartz's  hesitation  and  the  answer  to  Jim's  question. 
We  saw,  reaching  clear  across  the  narrow  bottom,  a 
great  wave  of  water,  coming  down  the  valley  like  a 
liquid  wall,  stretching  across  the  track  and  seeming 
to  forbid  our  further  progress,  while  it  advanced 
deliberately  upon  us,  as  if  to  drown  engine  and  crew. 
Driven  on  by  the  terrific  gale,  it  boiled  at  its  base,  and 
curled  forward  at  its  foamy  and  wind-whipped  crest, 
as  if  the  upper  waters  were  impatient  of  the  slow 
speed  of  those  below.  Beyond  the  wave,  the  valley, 
from  bluff  to  bluff,  was  a  sea,  rolling  white-capped 
waves.  Logs,  planks,  and  the  other  flotsam,  of  a 
freshet  moved  on  in  the  van  of  the  flood. 

It  looked  like  the  end  of  our  run.  What  engineer 
would  dare  to  dash  on  at  such  speed  over  a  submerged 
track — possible  floated  from  its  bed,  possibly  barricad 
ed  by  driftwood  ?  Was  not  the  wave  high  enough  to 
put  out  the  fires  and  kill  the  engine?  As  we  met 
the  roaring  eagre  we  felt  the  engine  leap,  as  Schwartz's 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.    3 1 1 

hesitation  left  him  and  he  opened  the  throttle.  Like 
knight  tilting  against  knight,  wave  and  engine  met. 
There  was  a  hissing  as  of  the  plunging  of  a  great 
red-hot  bar  into  a  vat.  A  roaring  sheet  of  water, 
thrown  into  the  air  by  our  momentum,  washed  cab 
and  tender  and  car,  as  a  billow  pours  over  a  laboring 
ship;  and  we  stood  on  the  steps,  drenched  to  the 
skin,  the  water  swirling  about  our  ankles  as  we 
rushed  forward.  Then  we  heard  the  scream  of 
triumph  from  the  whistle,  with  which  Schwartz 
cheered  us  as  the  dripping  train  ran  on  through 
shallower  and  shallower  water,  and  turning,  after  a 
mile  or  so,  began  climbing,  dry-shod,  the  grade 
which  led  from  the  flooded  valley  and  out  upon  the 
uplands. 

"Come  in,  Mr.  Elkins,"  said  Corcoran,  "You'll 
both  freeze  out  there,  wet  as  you  are." 

Not  until  I  heard  this  did  I  realize  that  we  were 
still  standing  on  the  steps,  our  clothes  congealing 
about  us,  peering  through  the  now  dense  gloom 
ahead,  as  if  for  the  apparition  of  some  other  grisly 
foe  to  daunt  or  drive  us  back. 

We  went  in,  and  sat  down  by  the  roaring  fire,  in 
spite  of  which  a  chill  pervaded  the  car.  We  were 
now  running  over  the  divide  between  the  valley  we 
had  just  left  and  that  of  Elk  Fork.  Up  here  on 
the  highlands  the  wind  more  than  ever  roared  and 
clutched  at  the  corners  of  the  car,  and  sometimes,  as 
with  the  palm  of  a  great  hand,  pressed  us  over,  as 
if  a  giant  were  striving  to  overturn  us.  We  could 
hear  the  engine  struggling  with  the  savage  norther, 
like  a  runner  breathing  hard,  as  he  nears  exhaus- 


3 1 2   That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

tion.  Presently  I  noticed  fine  particles  of  snow, 
driven  into  the  car  at  the  crevices,  falling  on  my  hands 
and  face,  and  striking  the  hot  stove  with  little  hissing 
explosions  of  steam. 

"We're  running  into  a  blizzard  up  here,"  said 
Corcoran.  "It's  a  terror  outside." 

"A  terror;  yes,"  said  Jim.  "What  sort  of  time 
are  we  making?" 

"Just  about  holding  our  own,"  said  Corcoran. 
"Not  much  to  spare.  Got  to  stop  at  Barslow  for 
water.  But  there  won't  be  any  bad  track  from 
there  on.  This  snow  won't  cut  any  figure  for  three 
hours  yet,  and  mebbe  not  at  all,  there's  so  little  of  it." 

"Kittrick  has  been  asking  for  an  appropriation  to 
rebuild  the  Elk  Fork  trestle,"  said  Jim.  "Will  it 
stand  this  flood?" 

"Well,"  said  Corcoran,  "if  the  water  ain't  too 
high,  and  the  ice  don't  run  too  swift  in  the  Fork, 
it'll  be  all  right.  But  if  there's  any  such  mixture 
of  downpour  and  thaw  as  there  was  along  the  Creek 
back  there,  we  may  have  to  jump  across  a  gap.  It'll 
probably  be  all  right." 

I  remembered  the  Elk  Fork,  and  the  trestle  just 
on  the  hither  side  of  the  Junction.  I  remembered 
the  valley,  green  with  trees,  and  populous  with  herds, 
winding  down  to  the  lake,  and  the  pretty  little  town 
of  Josephine.  I  remembered  that  gala  day  when 
we  christened  it.  I  groaned  in  spirit,  as  I  thought 
of  finding  the  trestle  gone,  after  our  hundred-and- 
fifty-mile  dash  through  storm  and  flood.  Yet  I 
believed  it  would  be  gone.  The  blows  showered 
upon  us  had  beaten  down  my  courage.  I  felt  no 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.    3  i  3 

shrinking  from  either  struggle  or  danger;  but  this 
was  merely  the  impulse  which  impels  the  soldier 
to  fight  on  in  despair,  and  sell  his  life  dearly.  I 
believed  that  ruin  fronted  us  all ;  that  our  great  sys 
tem  of  enterprises  was  going  down;  that,  East  and 
West,  where  we  had  been  so  much  courted  and  ad 
mired,  we  should  become  a  by-word  and  a  hissing. 
The  elements  were  struggling  against  us.  That 
vengeful  flood  had  snatched  at  us,  and  barely  missed; 
the  ruthless  hurricane  was  holding  us  back;  and 
somehow  fate  would  yet  find  means  to  lay  us  low. 
I  had  all  day  kept  thinking  of  the  lines: 

"Nor  ever  yet  had  Arthur  fought  a  fight 
Like  this  last  dim,  weird  battle  of  the  west. 
A  death-white  mist  slept  over  land  and  sea: 
Whereof  the  chill,  to  him  who  breathed  it,  drew 
Down  to  his  blood,  till  all  his  heat  was  cold 
With  formless  fear:  and  even  on  Arthur  fell 
Confusion,  since  he  saw  not  whom  he  fought." 

• 

And  this,  thought  I,  was  the  end  of  the  under 
taking  upon  which  we  had  entered  so  lightly,  with 
frolic  jests  of  piracy  and  Spanish  galleons  and  pieces- 
of -eight,  and  with  all  that  mock-seriousness  with 
which  we  discussed  hypnotic  suggestion  and  psychic 
force!  The  bitterness  grew  sickening,  as  Corcoran, 
hearing  the  long  whistle  of  the  engine,  said  that  we 
were  coming  into  Barslow.  The  tragic  foolery  of 
giving  that  name  to  any  place! 

Out  upon  the  platform  here,  in  the  blinding  whirl 
of  snow.  The  night  operator  came  out  and  talked 
to  us  of  the  news  of  the  line,  while  the  engine  ran  on 


314  That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

to  the  tank  for  water.  There  was  another  telegram 
from  Agnew,  saying  that  the  Pendleton  special  was 
on  time,  and  that  Mr.  Kittrick  was  following  us  with 
another  train  "in  case  of  need." 

The  operator  was  full  of  wild  stories  of  the 
Brushy  Creek  flood,  caused  by  the  thaw  and  the 
cloudburst.  We  cut  him  short  in  this  narration, 
and  asked  him  of  the  conditions  along  the  Elk  Fork. 
"She's  up  and  boomin',"  said  he.  "The  trestle  was 
most  all  under  water  an  hour  ago,  and  they  say  the 
ice  was  runnin'  in  blocks.  You  may  find  the  track 
left  without  any  underpinnin'.  Look  out  for  your 
selves." 

"Al,"  said  Jim  slowly,  "can  you  fire  an  engine?" 
"I  guess  so,"  said  I,  seeing  his  meaning  dimly. 
"Why?" 

"Al,"  said  he,  as  if  stating  the  conclusion  of  a  com 
plicated  calculation,  "we  must  run  this  train  in 
alone!" 

I  saw  his  intent  fully,  and  knew  why  he  walked 
so  resolutely  up  to  the  engine,  now  backed  down  to 
take  us  on  again.  Schwartz  leaned  out  of  his  cab, 
a  man  of  snow  and  ice.  Ole  stood  with  his  shovel 
in  his  hand  white  and  icy  like  his  brother  worker. 
Both  had  been  drenched,  as  we  had;  but  they  had 
had  no  red-hot  stove  by  which  to  sit;  and  buffeted 
by  the  blizzard  and  powdered  by  the  snow,  they  had 
endured  the  benumbing  cold  of  the  hurricane-swept 
cab. 

"Get  down  here,  boys,"  said  Jim.  "I  want  to 
talk  with  you." 

Ole  leaped  lightly  down,   followed  by  Schwartz, 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.   3 1 5 

who  hobbled  laboriously,  stiffened  with  cold.  Youth 
and  violent  labor  had  kept  the  fireman  warm. 

"Schwartz,"  said  Jim,  "there  is  a  chance  that 
we'll  find  the  trestle  weakened  and  dangerous. 
We'll  stop  and  examine  it  if  we  have  time,  but  if 
it  is  as  close  a  thing  as  I  think  it  will  be,  we  propose 
to  make  a  run  for  it  and  take  chances.  Barslow 
and  I  are  the  ones,  and  the  only  ones,  who  ought  to 
do  this,  because  we  must  make  this  connection. 
We  can  run  the  engine.  You  and  Ole  and  Corcoran 
stay  here.  Mr.  Kittrick  will  be  along  with  another 
train  in  a  few  hours.  Uncouple  the  caboose  and 
we'll  run  on." 

Schwartz  blew  his  nose  with  great  deliberation. 

"Ole,"  said  he,  "what  d'ye  think  of  the  old  man's 
scheme?" 

"Ay  tank,"  said  Ole,  "dat  bane  hellufa  notion!" 

"Come,"  said  Mr.  Elkins,  "we're  losing  time! 
Uncouple  at  once!" 

We  started  to  mount  the  engine ;  but  Schwartz  and 
Ole  were  before  us,  barring  the  way. 

"Wait,"  said  Schwartz.  "Jest  look  at  it,  now. 
It's  quite  a  run  yet;  and  the  chances  are  you'd  have 
the  cylinder-heads  knocked  out  before  you'd  got  half 
way;  and  then  where'd  you  be  with  your  connec 
tions?" 

"Do  you  mean  to  say,"  said  Jim,  "that  there's  any 
likelihood  of  the  engine's  dying  on  us  between  here 
and  the  Junction?" 

"It's  a  cinch!"  said  Schwartz. 

"For  God's  sake,  then,  let's  get  on!  "  said  Jim.  "I 
believe  you're  lying  to  me,  Schwartz.  But  do  this: 


316  That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

As  you  come  to  the  trestle,  stop.  From  the  ap 
proach  we  can  see  down  the  other  track  for  ten  miles. 
If  Pendleton's  train  is  far  enough  off  so  as  to  give  us 
time,  we'll  see  how  the  bridge  is  before  we  cross.  If 
we're  pressed  for  time  too  much  for  this,  promise  me 
that  you'll  stop  and  let  us  run  the  engine  across 
alone." 

"I'll  think  about  it,"  said  Schwartz;  "and  if  I 
conclude  to,  I  will.  It's  got  to  clear  up,  if  we  can 
see  even  the  headlight  on  the  other  road  very  far. 
Ready,  Jack?" 

We  wrung  their  hard  and  icy  hands,  leaped  upon 
the  train,  and  were  away  again,  spinning  down  the 
grade  toward  the  Elk  Fork,  and  comforted  by  our 
speed.  Jim  and  I  climbed  into  the  cupola  and 
watched  the  track  ahead,  and  the  two  homely  heroes 
in  the  cab,  as  the  light  from  the  furnace  blazed  out 
upon  them  from  time  to  time.  Now  we  could  see, 
Schwartz  stoking,  to  warm  himself;  now  we  could 
see  him  looking  at  his  watch  and  peering  anxiously 
out  before  him. 

It  was  wearing  on  toward  nine,  and  still  our  goal 
was  miles  away.  Overhead  the  sky  was  clearing, 
and  we  could  see  the  stars ;  but  down  on  the  ground 
the  light,  new  snow  still  glided  whitely  along  before 
the  lessening  wind.  Once  or  twice  we  saw,  or 
thought  we  saw,  far  ahead,  lights,  like  those  of  a 
little  prairie  town.  Was  it  the  Junction?  Yes, 
said  Corcoran,  when  we  called  him  to  look;  and  now 
we  saw  that  we  were  rising  on  the  long  approach  to 
the  trestle. 

Would  Schwartz  stop,  or  would  he  run  desperately 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.   3 1 7 

across,  as  he  had  dashed  through  the  flood?  That 
was  with  him.  His  hand  was  on  the  lever,  and  we 
were  helpless;  but,  if  there  was  time,  it  would  be 
mere  foolhardiness  to  go  upon  the  trestle  at  any  but 
the  slowest  speed,  and  without  giving  all  but  one 
an  opportunity  to  walk  across.  One,  surely,  was 
enough  to  go  down  with  the  engine,  if  it,  indeed, 
went  down. 

"Don't  stay  up  there,"  shouted  Corcoran,  "go  out 
on  the  steps  so  you  can  jump  for  it  if  you  have  to ! " 

Out  upon  the  platform  we  went  in  the  biting 
wind,  which  still  came  fiercely  on,  sweeping  over  the 
waste  of  waters  which  covered  the  fields  like  a 
great  lake.  There  was  no  sign  of  slowing  down: 
right  on,  as  if  the  road  were  rock-ballasted,  and 
thrice  secure,  the  engine  drove  toward  the  trestle. 

"She's  there,  anyhow,  I  b'lieve,"  said  Corcoran, 
swinging  out  and  looking  ahead;  "but  I  wouldn't 
bet  on  how  solid  she  is!" 

"Can't  you  stop  him?"  said  Jim. 

"Stop  nothing! "  said  Corcoran.  "  Look  over  there!" 

We  looked,  and  saw  a  light  gleaming  mistily,  but 
distinct  and  unmistakable,  across  the  water  on  the 
other  track.  It  was  the  Pendleton  special!  Not 
much  further  from  the  station  than  were  we,  the 
train  of  moving  palaces  to  which  we  were  fighting 
our  way  was  gliding  to  the  point  beyond  which  it 
must  not  pass  without  us.  There  was  now  no  more 
thought  of  stopping;  rather  our  desires  yearned 
forward  over  the  course,  agonizing  for  greater  speed. 
I  did  not  see  that  we  were  actually  upon  the  trestle 
until  for  some  rods  we  had  been  running  with  the 


3 1 8   That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West. 

inky  water  only  a  few  feet  below  us;  but  when  I 
saw  it  my  hopes  leaped  up,  as  I  calculated  the  pro 
portion  of  the  peril  which  was  passed.  A  moment 
more,  and  the  solid  approach  would  be  under  our 
spinning  wheels. 

But  the  moment  more  was  not  to  be  given  us !  For, 
even  as  this  joy  rose  in  my  breast,  I  felt  a  shock;  I 
heard  a  confused  sound  of  men's  cries,  and  the  shat 
tering  of  timbers;  the  caboose  whirled  over  corner- 
wise,  throwing  up  into  the  air  the  step  on  which  I 
stood;  the  sounds  of  the  train  went  out  in  sudden 
silence  as  engine  and  car  plunged  off  into  the  stream ; 
and  I  felt  the  cold  water  close  over  me  as  I  fell  into 
the  rushing  flood.  I  arose  and  struck  out  for  the 
shore;  then  I  thought  of  Jim.  A  few  feet  above  me 
in  the  stream  I  saw  something  like  a  hand  or  foot 
flung  up  out  of  the  water,  and  sucked  down  again.  I 
turned  as  well  as  I  could  toward  the  spot,  and  col 
lided  with  some  object  under  the  surface.  I  caught 
at  it,  felt  the  skirt  of  a  garment  in  my  hand,  and 
knew  it  for  a  man.  Then,  I  remember  helping 
myself  with  a  plank  from  some  washed-out  bridge, 
and  soon  felt  the  ground  under  my  feet,  all  the  time 
clinging  to  my  man.  I  tried  to  lift  him  out,  but  could 
not;  and  I  locked  my  hands  under  his  arm -pits  and, 
slowly  stepping  backwards,  I  half  carried,  half 
dragged  him,  seeking  a  place  where  I  could  lay  him 
down.  I  saw  the  dark  line  of  the  railroad  grade, 
and  made  wearily  toward  it.  I  walked  blindly  into 
the  water  of  the  ditch  beside  the  track,  and  had  scarce 
ly  strength  to  pull  myself  and  my  burden  out  upon 
the  bank.  Then  I  stopped  and  peered  into  his  face, 


That  Last  Weird  Battle  in  the  West.   3 1 9 

and  saw  uncertainly  that  it  was  Jim — with  a 
dark  spot  in  the  edge  of  the  hair  on  his  forehead, 
from  which  black  streaks  kept  stealing  down  as  I 
wiped  them  off;  and  with  one  arm  which  twisted 
unnaturally,  and  with  a  grating  sound  as  I  moved 
it;  and  from  whom  there  came  no  other  sound  or 
movement  whatever. 

And  over  across  the  stream  gleamed  the  lights  of 
the  Pendleton  special  as  it  sped  away  toward  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
XTbe  EnD— an&  a  ^Beginning. 

As  to  our  desperate  run  from  Lattimore  to  the 
place  where  it  came  to  an  end  in  a  junk-heap  which 
had  been  once  an  engine,  a  car  reduced  to  match 
wood,  a  broken  trestle,  and  a  chaos  of  crushed 
hopes,  and  of  the  return  to  our  homes  thereafter, 
no  further  details  need  be  set  forth.  The  papers  in 
Lattimore  were  filled  with  the  story  for  a  day  or  two, 
and  I  believe  there  were  columns  about  it  in  the  Asso 
ciated  Press  reports.  I  doubt  not  that  Mr.  Pendleton 
and  Mr.  Cornish  each  read  it  in  the  morning  papers, 
and  that  the  latter  explained  it  to  the  former  in 
Chicago.  From  these  reports  the  future  biographer 
may  glean,  if  he  happens  to  come  into  being  and  to 
care  about  it,  certain  interesting  facts  about  the 
people  of  this  history.  He  will  learn  that  Mr. 
Barslow,  having  (with  truly  Horatian  swimming 
powers)  rescued  President  Elkins  from  a  watery 
grave,  waited  with  his  unconscious  derelict  in  great 
danger  from  freezing,  until  they  were  both  rescued 
a  second  time  by  a  crew  of  hand-car  men  who  were 
near  the  trestle  on  special  work  connected  with  the 
flood  and  its  ravages.  That  President  Elkins  was 
terribly  injured,  having  sustained  a  broken  arm  and 

320 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       321 

a  dangerous  wound  in  the  forehead.  Moreover,  he 
was  threatened  with  pneumonia  from  his  exposure. 
Should  this  disease  really  fasten  itself  upon  him, 
his  condition  would  be  very  critical  indeed.  That 
Mr.  Barslow,  the  hero  of  the  occasion,  was  uninjured. 
And  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  such  student  of  his 
tory  will  find  in  an  inconspicuous  part  of  the  same 
news-story,  as  if  by  reason  of  its  lack  of  importance, 
the  statement  that  O.  Hegvold,  fireman,  and  J.  J.  Cor 
coran,  conductor  of  the  wrecked  train,  escaped  with 
slight  injuries.  And  that  Julius  Schwartz,  the  en 
gineer,  living  at  2714  May  Street,  and  the  oldest 
engineer  on  the  L.  &  G.  W.,  being  benumbed  by  the 
cold,  sank  like  a  stone  and  was  drowned.  Poor 
Schwartz!  Magnificent  Schwartz!  No  captain  ever 
went  down,  refusing  to  leave  the  bridge  of  his  sink 
ing  ship,  with  more  heroism  than  he;  who,  clad  in 
greasy  overalls,  and  sapped  of  his  strength  by  the 
icy  hurricane,  finding  his  homely  duty  inextricably 
entangled  with  death,  calmly  took  them  both,  and 
went  his  way. 

This  mine  for  the  historian  will  also  disclose  to 
him  the  fact  that  the  rescued  crew  and  passengers 
were  brought  home  by  a  relief-train  in  charge  of 
General  Manager  Kittrick,  and  that  Mr.  Elkins  was 
taken  directly  to  the  home  of  Mr.  Barslow,  where 
he  at  once  became  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
physicians  and  nurses  and  "could  not  be  seen." 
But  as  to  the  reasons  for  the  insane  dash  in  the 
dark  the  historian  will  look  in  vain.  I  am  disposed 
now  to  think  that  our  motives  were  entirely  credit 
able;  but  for  them  we  got  no  credit. 


322        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

Much  less  than  a  nine  days'  wonder,  however, 
was  this  tragedy  of  the  Elk  Fork  trestle,  for  other 
sensations  came  tumbling  in  an  army  upon  its 
very  heels.  Times  of  war,  great  public  calamities, 
and  panic  are  the  harvest  seasons  of  the  newspapers ; 
and  these  were  great  days  for  the  newspapers  in 
Lattimore.  Not  that  they  learned  or  printed  all  the 
news.  I  received  a  telegram,  for  instance,  the  day 
after  the  accident,  which  merely  entered  up  judg 
ment  on  the  verdict  of  the  day  before.  It  was  a 
message  from  Mr.  Pendleton  in  Chicago. 

"In  matter  of  Lattimore  &  Great  Western,"  this 
telegram  read,  "directors  refuse  to  ratify  contract. 
This  sent  to  save  you  trip  to  Chicago." 

"No  news  in  that,"  said  I  to  Mr.  Hinckley;  "I 
wonder  that  he  bothered  to  send  it." 

But,  in  the  era  of  slug  heads  which  set  in  about 
three  days  after,  and  while  Jim  was  still  helpless  up 
at  my  house,  it  would  have  received  recognition  as 
news — although  they  did  very  well  without  it. 

"Great  Failure!"  said  the  Times.  "Grain  Belt 
Trust  Company  Goes  to  the  Wall!  Business  Circles 
Convulsed!  Receiver  Appointed  at  Suit  of  Charles 
Harper  of  Chicago!  Followed  by  Assignment  of 
Hinckley  &  Macdonald,  Bankers!  Western  Port 
land  Cement  Company  Assigns!  Atlas  Power  Com 
pany  Follows  Suit!  Reason,  Money  Tied  up  in 
Banks  and  Trust  Company.  Where  will  it  Stop?  A 
Veritable  Black  Friday!" 

Thus  the  headlines.  In  the  news  report  itself  the 
Times  remarked  upon  the  intimate  connection  of 
Mr.  Elkins  and  myself  with  all  the  failed  concerns. 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       323 

The  firm  of  Elkins  &  Barslow,  being  primarily  a 
real-estate  and  insurance  agency,  would  not  assign. 
As  to  the  condition  of  the  business  of  James  R. 
Elkins  &  Company,  t  whose  operations  in  bonds 
and  debentures  had  been  enormous,  nothing  could 
be  learned  on  account  of  the  critical  illness  of  Mr. 
Elkins. 

"It  is  not  thought,"  said  the  Herald,  "that  the 
failures  will  carry  down  any  other  concerns.  The 
run  on  the  First  National  Bank  was  one  of  those 
panicky  symptoms  which  are  dangerous  because  so 
unreasoning.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  not  be 
renewed  in  the  morning.  The  banks  are  not  involved 
in  the  operations  of  the  Grain  Belt  Trust  Company, 
the  failure  of  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  sure  to 
cause  serious  disturbances,  both  locally  and  else 
where,  wherever  its  wide-spread  operations  have 
extended." 

The  physical  system  adjusts  itself  to  any  perma 
nent  lesion  in  the  body,  and  finally  ceases  even  to 
send  out  its  complaining  messages  of  pain.  So  we 
in  Lattimore,  who  a  few  weeks  ago  had  been  ready 
to  sacrifice  anything  for  the  keeping  of  our  good 
name;  who  by  stealth  justly  foreclosed  mortgages 
justly  due,  lest  the  world  should  wonder  at  their  non 
payment;  who  so  greatly  had  rejoiced  in  our  own 
strength;  who  had  felt  that,  surely,  we  who  had 
wrought  such  wonders  could  not  now  fail: — even 
we  numbly  came  to  regard  receiverships  and  assign 
ments  as  quite  the  thing  to  be  expected.  The  fact 
that,  all  over  the  country,  panic,  ruin,  and  business 
stagnation  were  spreading  like  a  pestilence,  from  just 


324        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

such  centers  of  contagion  as  Lattimore,  made  it 
easier  for  us.  Surely,  we  felt,  nobody  could  justly 
blame  us  for  being  in  the  path  of  a  tempest  which, 
like  a  tropic  cyclone,  ravaged  a  continent. 

This  may  have  been  weak  self-justification;  but, 
even  yet,  when  I  think  of  the  way  we  began,  and 
how  the  wave  of  "prosperity"  rose  and  rose,  by 
acts  in  themselves,  so  far  as  we  could  see,  in  every 
way  praiseworthy;  how  with  us,  and  with  people 
engaged  in  like  operations  everywhere,  the  most 
powerful  passions  of  society  came  to  aid  our  projects; 
how  the  winds  from  the  unknown,  the  seismic  throb- 
bings  of  the  earth,  and  the  very  stars  in  their  courses 
fought  for  us;  and  when,  at  last,  these  mightinesses 
turned  upon  us  the  cold  and  evil  eye  of  their  dis. 
pleasure,  how  the  heaped-up  sea  came  pouring  over 
here,  trickling  through  there,  and  seeping  under 
yonder,  until  our  great  dike  toppled  over  in  baleful 
tumult,  "and  all  the  world  was  in  the  sea";  how 
business,  east,  west,  north,  and  south,  went  para 
lyzed  with  fear  and  distrust,  and  old  concerns  went 
out  like  strings  of  soap-bubbles,  and  shocks  of  pain 
and  disease  went  round  the  world,  and  everywhere 
there  was  that  hellish  and  portentous  thing  known 
to  the  modern  world  only,  and  called  a  "commercial 
panic":  when  I  broadly  consider  these  things,  I  am 
not  vain  enough  seriously  to  blame  myself. 

These  thoughts  are  more  than  ever  in  my  mind 
to-day,  as  I  look  back  over  the  decade  of  years*which 
have  elapsed  since  our  Waterloo  at  the  Elk  Fork 
trestle.  I  look  out  from  the  same  library  in  which 
I  once  felt  a  sense  of  guilt  at  the  expense  of  building 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.        325 

it,  and  see  the  solid  and  prosperous  town,  almost  as 
populous  as  we  once  saw  it  in  our  dreams.  I  am 
regarded  locally  as  one  of  the  creators  of  the  city; 
but  I  know  that  this  praise  is  as  unmerited  as  was 
that  blame  of  a  dozen  years  ago.  We  rode  on  the 
crest  of  a  wave,  and  we  weltered  in  the  trough  of 
the  sea;  but  we  only  seemed  to  create  or  control. 
I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  from  Jim,  received  yester 
day,  and  eloquent  of  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place. 

"I  am  sorry,"  says  he,  "to  be  unable  to  come  to 
your  business  men's  banquet.  The  building  of  a 
great  auditorium  in  Lattimore  is  proof  that  we 
weren't  so  insane,  after  all.  I  suppose  that  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  tide  of  progress,  which  yearly  gains 
upon  the  shore,  is  inevitable,  as  things  are  hooked 
up;  but,  after  the  ebb,  it's  comforting  to  see  your 
old  predictions  as  to  gain  coming  rue,  even  if 
you  do  find  yourself  in  the  discard.  It  would  be 
worth  the  trip  only  to  see  Captain  Tolliver,  and  to 
hear  him  eliminate  the  r's  from  his  mother  tongue. 
Give  the  dear  old  secesh  my  dearest  love! 

"But  I  can't  come,  Al.  I  must  be  in  Washington 
at  that  time  on  business  of  the  greatest  (presumptive) 
importance  to  the  cattle  interests  of  the  buffalo-grass 
country.  I  could  change  my  own  dates;  but  my 
wife  has  arranged  a  tryst  for  a  day  certain  with  some 
specialists  in  her  line  in  New  York.  She's  quite  the 
queen  of  the  cattle  range — in  New  York:  and,  to 
be  dead  truthful,  she  comes  pretty  near  it  out  here. 
It  is  rumored  that  even  the  sheepmen  speak  well  of 
her. 


326        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

"These  Eastern  trips  are  great  things  for  her  and 
the  children.  I'm  riding  the  range  so  constantly, 
and  get  so  much  fun  out  of  it,  that  I  feel  sort  of 
undressed  and  embarrassed  out  of  the  saddle.  In 
Washington  I'm  pointed  out  as  a  typical  cowboy, 
the  descendant  of  a  Spanish  vaquero  and  a  trapper's 
daughter.  This  helps  me  to  represent  my  constituents 
in  the  sessions  of  the  Third  House,  and  to  get  Con 
gressional  attention  to  the  ax  I  want  ground.  I  am 
looked  upon  as  in  line  for  the  presidency  of  the 
Amalgated  Association  of  American  Ax -grinders. 

"If  we  can  make  it,  we'll  look  in  on  you  on  our  way 
back;  but  we  don't  promise.  With  cattle  scattered 
over  two  counties  of  buttes  and  canyons,  we  feel  in  a 
hurry  when  we  get  started  home,  after  an  absence 
sure  to  have  been  longer  than  we  intended.  Then, 
you  know  how  I  feel; — I  wish  the  old  town  well,  but 
I  don't  enjoy  every  incident  of  my  visits  there. 

"We  expect  to  see  the  Cecil  Barr-Smiths  in  New 
York.  Cecil  is  the  whole  thing  now  with  their 
companies — a  sort  of  professional  president  in 
charge  of  the  American  properties;  and  Mrs.  Cecil 
is  as  well  known  in  some  mighty  good  circles  in 
London  as  she  used  to  be  in  Lynhurst  Park. 

' '  I  am  glad  to  know  that  things  are  going  toward 
the  good  with  you.  Personally,  I  never  expect  to  be 
a  seven-figure  man  again,  and  don't  care  to  be.  I 
prefer  to  look  after  my  few  thousands  of  steers,  laying 
on  four  hundred  pounds  each  per  year,  far  from 
the  madding  crowd.  You  know  Riley's  man  who 
said  that  the  little  town  of  Tailholt  was  good  enough 
for  him?  Well,  that  expresses  my  view  of  the  '  J-Up- 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       327 

and-Down '  Ranch  as  a  hermitage.  It'll  do  quite  well. 
But  these  Eastern  interests  of  Mrs.  Jim  are  just  now 
menacing  to  life  in  any  hermitage.  She  has  specifi 
cally  stated  on  two  or  three  occasions  lately  that  this 
is  no  place  to  bring  up  a  family.  Think  of  a  rough- 
rider  like  me  in  the  wilds  of  New  York!  I  can  see 
plenty  of  ways  of  amusing  myself  down  there,  but 
not  such  peaceful  ways  as  putting  on  my  six-shooters 
and  going  out  after  timber  wolves  or  mountain  lions, 
or  our  local  representative  of  the  clan  of  the  Hon. 
Maverick  Brander.  The  future  lowers  dark  with  the 
multitudinous  mouths  of  avenues  of  prosperity!" 

This  letter  was  a  disappointment  to  Mr.  Giddings. 
His  special  edition  of  the  Herald  commemorative  of 
the  opening  of  our  Auditorium  must  now  be  de 
prived  of  its  James  R.  Elkins  feature,  so  far  as  his 
being  the  guest  of  honor  goes.  But  there  will  be 
Jim's  photograph  on  the  first  page,  and  a  half-tone 
reproduction  of  a  picture  of  the  wreck  at  the  Elk 
Fork  trestle. 

"It  is  a  matter  of  the  deepest  regret,"  said  the 
Herald  this  morning,  "that  Mr.  Elkins  cannot  be  with 
us  on  this  auspicious  occasion.  He  was  the  head 
of  that  most  remarkable  group  of  men  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  Lattimore's  greatness.  Only  one  of 
them,  Mr.  Barslow,  still  lives  in  Lattimore,  where  he 
has  devoted  his  life,  since  the  crash  of  many  years 
ago,  to  the  reorganization  of  the  failed  concerns, 
and  especially  the  Grain  Belt  Trust  Company,  and 
to  the  salving  of  their  properties  in  the  interests  of 
the  creditors.  His  present  prominence  grows  out  of 
the  signal  skill  and  ability  with  which  he  has  done 


328        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

this  work;  and  he  must  prove  a  great  factor  in  the 
city's  future  development,  as  he  has  been  in  its 
past.  Mr.  Hinckley,  the  third  member  of  the  syndi 
cate,  now  far  advanced  in  years,  is  living  happily 
with  his  daughter  and  her  husband.  The  fourth, 
Mr.  Cornish,  resides  in  Paris,  where  he  is  well  known 
as  a  daring  and  successful  financial  operator.  He, 
of  all  the  syndicate,  retired  from  the  Lattimore 
enterprises  rich. 

' '  There  have  been  years  when  the  names  of  these  men 
were  not  held  in  the  respect  and  esteem  they  deserve. 
The  town  was  going  backward.  People  who  had 
been  rich  were,  many  of  them,  in  absolute  distress 
for  the  necessaries  of  life.  And  these  men,  in  a 
vague  sort  of  way,  were  blamed  for  it.  Now,  how 
ever,  we  can  begin  to  see  the  wisdom  of  their  plans 
and  the  vastness  of  the  scope  of  their  combinations. 
Nothing  but  the  element  of  time  was  wanting,  abun 
dantly  to  vindicate  their  judgment  and  sagacity. 
The  industries  they  founded  succeeded  as  soon  as 
they  were  divorced  from  the  real-estate  speculation 
which  unavoidably  entered  into  their  management 
at  the  outset.  It  is  regrettable  that  their  founders 
could  not  share  in  their  success." 

"Nothing  but  the  element  of  time,"  said  I  to 
Captain  Tolliver,  who  sat  by  me  in  the  car  as  I  read 
this  editorial,  "prevents  the  hot-air  balloon  from 
carrying  its  load  over  the  Rockies." 

"Nothing  but  luck,"  said  the  Captain,  "evah 
could  have  beaten  us.  It  was  the  Fleischmann 
failure,  and  it  was  nothing  else.  As  to  the  great 
qualities  of  Mr.  Elkins,  suh,  the  editorial  puts  it 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       329 

too  mild  by  fah.  He  was  a  Titan,  suh,  a  Titan, 
and  we  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again.  This 
town  at  this  moment  is  vegetating  fo'  the  want  of 
some  fo'ceful  Elkins  to  put  life  into  it.  The  trilo- 
bites,  as  he  so  well  dubbed  them,  ah  in  control  again. 
What's  this  Auditorium  we've  built?  A  good  thing 
fo'  the  city,  cehtainly,  a  ve'y  good  thing:  but  see  the 
difficulty,  the  humiliatin'  difficulty  we  had,  in  gettin' 
togethah  the  paltry  and  trivial  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dolla's!  Why  in  that  elder  day,  in  such  a 
cause,  we'd  have  called  a  meetin'  in  that  old  office 
of  Elkins  &  Barslow's,  and  made  it  up  out  of  ouah 
own  funds  in  fifteen  minutes.  It's  the  so't  of  cattle 
we've  got  hyah  as  citizens  that's  handicappin'  us; 
but  in  spite  of  this,  suh,  ouah  unsuhpassed  strategi 
cal  position  is  winnin'  fo'  us.  We  ah  just  now  on 
the  eve  of  great  developments,  Barslow,  great  develop 
ments!  All  my  holdins  ah  withdrawn  from  mahket 
until  fu'theh  notice.  Foh,  as  we  ah  so  much  behind 
the  surroundin'  country  in  growth,  we  must  soon 
take  a  great  leap  fo'wahd.  We  ah  past  the  boom 
stage,  I  thank  God,  and  what  we  ah  now  goin'  to 
get  is  a  rathah  brisk  but  entiahly  healthy  growth. 
A  good,  healthy  growth,  Barslow,  and  no  boom!" 

The  disposition  to  moralize  comes  on  with  advanc 
ing  middle  age,  and  I  could  not  help  philosophizing 
on  this  perennial  optimism  of  the  Captain's.  He 
had  used  these  very  words  when,  so  long  ago,  we 
had  begun  our  "cruise."  The  financial  cycle  was 
complete.  The  world  had  passed  from  hope  to 
intoxication,  from  intoxication  to  panic,  from  panic 
to  the  depths,  from  this  depression,  ascending  the 


330        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

long  slope  of  gradual  recovery,  to  the  uplands  of 
hope  once  more.  Now,  as  twenty  years  ago,  this 
feeling  covered  the  whole  world,  was  most  pro 
nounced  in  the  newer  and  more  progressive  lands, 
and  was  voiced  by  Captain  Tolliver,  the  grizzled 
swashbuckler  of  the  land  market.  In  it  I  recognized 
the  ripple  on  the  sands  heralding  the  approach  of 
another  wave  of  speculation,  which  must  roll  shore 
ward  in  splendor  and  might,  and,  like  its  predecessors, 
must  spend  itself  in  thunderous  ruin. 

I  often  think  of  what  General  Lattimore  was 
accustomed  to  say  about  these  matters,  and  how 
Josie  echoed  his  words  as  to  the  evil  of  fortunes 
coming  to  those  who  never  earned  them.  Some  time, 
I  hope,  we  shall  grow  wise  enough  to — 

I  humbly  beg  your  pardon,  Madam,  and  thank  you. 
That  charming  gesture  of  impatience  was  the  one 
thing  needful  to  admonish  me  that  lectures  are  dull, 
and  that  the  time  has  come  to  write  finis.  The  rest 
of  the  story?  Cornish — Jim — Josie — Antonia?  Oh, 
this  proneness  of  the  business  man  to  talk  shop! 
Left  to  myself,  I  should  have  allowed  their  history 
to  remain  to  the  end  of  time,  unresolved  as  to  entan 
glements,  and  them  unhealed  as  to  bruises,  bodily 
and  sentimental.  And,  yet,  those  were  the  things 
which  most  filled  our  minds  in  the  dark  days  after 
we  missed  connection  with  the  Pendleton  special. 

In  the  first  spasm  of  the  crisis  I  was  more  con 
cerned  for  Jim's  safety  than  with  the  long-feared 
monetary  cataclysm.  That  was  upon  us  in  such 
power  as  to  make  us  helpless;  but  Jim,  wounded 
and  prostrated  as  he  was,  his  very  life  in  danger, 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       331 

was  a  concrete  subject  of  anxiety  and  a  comfort 
ingly  promising  object  of  care. 

"If  we  can  keep  this  from  assuming  the  character 
of  true  pneumonia,"  said  Dr.  Aylesbury,  "there's 
no  reason  why  he  shouldn't  recover." 

He  had  been  unconscious  and  then  delirious  from 
the  time  when  he  and  I  had  been  picked  up  there  by 
the  railroad-dump,  until  we  were  well  on  our  way 
home  on  Kittrick's  relief-train.  At  last  he  looked 
about  him,  and  his  eyes  rested  on  Corcoran. 

"Hello,  Jack!  "  said  he  weakly;  and  as  his  glance 
took  in  Ole,  he  smiled  and  said:  "A  hellufa  notion, 
you  tank,  do  you?  Ole,  where 's  Schwartz?" 

Ole  twisted  and  squirmed,  but  found  no  words 

"We  couldn't  find  Schwartz,"  said  Kittrick.  "He 
was  so  cold,  he  went  right  down  with  the  cab." 

"I  see,"  said  Jim.     "It  was  bitter  cold!  " 

He  said  no  more.  I  wondered  at  this,  and  almost 
blamed  him,  even  in  his  stricken  state,  for  not  feeling 
the  peculiar  poignancy  of  our  regret  for  the  loss  of 
Schwartz.  And  then,  his  face  being  turned  away, 
I  peeped  over  to  see  if  he  slept,  and  saw  where  his 
tears  had  dropped  silently  on  the  piled-up  cushions 
of  his  couch. 

Mrs.  Trescott  came  several  times  a  day  to  inquire 
as  to  Mr.  Elkins's  welfare;  but  Josie  not  at  all. 
Antonia's  carriage  stopped  often  at  the  door;  and 
somebody  stood  always  at  the  telephone,  answering 
the  stream  of  questions.  But  when,  on  that  third 
evening,  it  became  known  that  the  last  "battle  in 
the  west"  had  gone  against  us,  that  all  our  great 


332        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

Round  Table  was  dissolved,  and  that  Jim's  was  a 
sinking  and  not  a  rising  sun,  public  interest  sud 
denly  fell  off.  And  the  poor  fellow  whose  word  but 
yesterday  might  have  stood  against  the  world,  now 
lay  there  fighting  for  very  life,  and  few  so  poor  to  do 
him  reverence.  I  had  been  so  proud  of  his  splendid 
and  dominant  strength  that  this,  I  think,  was  the 
thing  that  brought  the  bitterness  of  failure  most 
keenly  home  to  me.  I  could  not  feel  satisfied  with 
Josie.  There  were  good  reasons  why  she  might 
have  refused  to  choose  between  Jim  and  the  man 
who  had  ruined  him,  while  there  was  danger  of  her 
choice  itself  becoming  the  occasion  of  war  between 
them.  But  that  was  over  now,  and  Cornish  was 
victorious.  Gradually  the  fear  grew  upon  me  that 
we  had  rated  Josie's  womanhood  higher  than  she 
herself  held  it,  and  that  Cornish  was  to  win  her  also. 
He  had  that  magnetism  which  so  attracted  her  as  a 
girl,  but  that  I  had  believed  incapable  of  holding 
her  as  a  woman.  And  now  he  had  wealth,  and  Jim. 
was  poor,  and  the  whole  world  stood  with  its  back 
to  us,  and  Josie  held  aloof.  I  was  afraid  he  would 
speak  of  it,  every  time  he  tried  to  talk. 

That  night  when  the  evening  papers  came  out 
with  all  their  plenitude  of  bad  news  (for  we  had 
pleased  Watson  by  dying  on  the  evening  papers' 
time),  it  was  a  dark  moment  for  us.  Jim  lay  silent 
and  unmoving,  as  if  all  his  ebullient  energy  had 
gone  forever.  The  physician  omitted  the  dressing 
of  his  wound,  because,  he  said,  he  feared  the  patient 
was  not  strong  enough  to  bear  it:  and  this,  as  well 
as  the  strange  semi-stupor  of  the  sufferer,  frightened 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       333 

me.  Jim  had  said  little,  and  most  of  his  words  had 
been  of  the  trivial  things  of  the  sick-room.  Only 
once  did  he  refer  to  the  great  affairs  in  which  we  had 
been  for  so  long  engrossed. 

"What  day  is  this?"  he  asked. 

"Friday,"  said  I,  "the  twenty-first." 

"By  this  time,"  said  he  feebly,  "we  must  be 
pretty  well  shot  to  rags." 

"Never  mind  about  that,"  said  I,  holding  his  hands 
in  mine.  "Never»mind,  Jim!" 

"Some  of  those  gophers,"  said  he,  after  a  while, 
"used  to  learn  to  ...  rub  their  noses  ...  in  the 
dirt  .  .  .  and  always  stick  their  heads  up — outside 
the  snare!" 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "I  remember.  Go  to  sleep,  old 
man!" 

I  thought  him  delirious,  and  he  knew  and  resented 
it ;  being  evidently  convinced  that  he  had  just  made 
a  wise  remark.  It  touched  me  to  hear  him,  even  in 
his  extremity,  return  to  those  boyhood  days  when 
we  trapped  and  hunted  and  fished  together.  He 
saw  my  pitying  look. 

"I'm  all  right,"  said  he;  but  he  said  no  more. 

The  nurse  came  in,  and  told  me  that  Mrs.  Barslow 
wished  to  see  me  in  the  library.  I  went  down,  and 
found  Josie  and  Alice  together. 

"I  got  a  letter  from — from  Mr.  Cornish,"  said 
she,  "telling  me  that  he  was  returning  from  Chicago 
to-night,  and  was  coming  to  see  me.  I  ran  over, 
because — and  told  mamma  to  say  that  I  couldn't  see 
him." 

"See  him  by  all  means,"  said  I  with  some  bitter- 


334        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

ness.  "You  should  make  it  a  point  to  see  him. 
Mr.  Cornish  is  a  success.  He  alone  of  us  all  has 
shown  real  greatness." 

And  it  dawned  upon  me,  as  I  said  it,  what  Jim 
had  meant  by  his  reference  to  the  gopher  which 
learns  to  stick  its  head  up  "outside  the  snare." 

"I  want  to  ask  you,"  said  Josie,  "is  it  all  true — 
what  was  in  the  paper  to-night  about  all  of  you, 
Mr.  Hinckley  and  yourself,  and — all  of  you  having 
failed?" 

"It  is  only  a  part  of  the  truth,"  I  replied.  "We 
are  ruined  absolutely." 

She  said  nothing  by  way  of  condolence,  and  uttered 
no  expressions  of  regret  or  sympathy.  She  was 
apparently  in  a  state  of  suppressed  excitement, 
and  started  at  sounds  and  movements. 

"Is  Mr.  Elkins  very  ill?"  said  she  at  length. 

"So  ill,"  said  Alice,  "that  unless  he  rallies  soon, 
we  shall  look  for  the  worst." 

No  more  at  this  than  at  the  other  ill  news  did 
Josie  express  any  regret  or  concern.  She  sat  with 
her  fingers  clasped  together,  gazing  before  her  at 
the  fire  in  the  grate,  as  if  making  some  deep  and 
abstruse  calculation.  But  when  the  door-bell  rang, 
she  started  and  listened  attentively,  as  the  servant 
went  to  the  door,  and  then  returned  to  us. 

"A  gentleman,  Mr.  Cornish,  to  see  Miss  Trescott," 
said  the  maid.  "And  he  says  he  must  see  her  for  a 
moment." 

"Alice,"  said  Josie,  under  her  breath,  "you  go, 
please!  Say  to  him  that  I  cannot  see  him — now! 
Oh,  why  did  he  follow  me  here?" 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       335 

"Josie,"  said  Alice  dramatically,  "you  don't 
mean  to  say  that  you  are  afraid  of  this  man!  Are 
you?" 

"No,  no!"  said  the  girl  doubtfully  and  distress 
fully;  "but  it's  so  hard  to  say  'No'  to  him!  If  you 
only  knew  all,  Alice,  you  wouldn't  blame  me — and 
you'd  go!" 

"If  you're  so  far  gone — under  his  influence," 
said  Alice,  "that  you  can't  trust  yourself  to  say 
'No,'  Josephine  Trescott,  go,  in  Heaven's  name, 
and  say  'Yes,'  and  be  the  wife  of  a  millionaire — 
and  a  traitor  and  scoundrel!" 

As  Alice  said  this  she  came  perilously  near  the 
histrionic  standard  of  the  tragic  stage.  Josie  rose, 
looked  at  her  in  surprise,  in  which  there  seemed  to 
be  some  defiance,  and  walked  steadily  out  to  the  par 
lor.  I  was  glad  to  be  out  of  the  affair,  and  went 
back  to  Jim.  I  stood  regarding  my  broken  and 
forsaken  friend,  in  watching  whose  uneasy  sleep  I 
forgot  the  crisis  downstairs,  when  I  was  startled 
and  angered  by  the  slamming  of  the  front  door, 
and  heard  a  carriage  rattle  furiously  away  down  the 
street. 

Soon  I  heard  the  rustle  of  skirts,  and  looked  up, 
thinking  to  see  my  wife.  But  it  was  Josie.  She 
came  in,  as  if  she  were  the  regularly  ordained  nurse, 
and  stepped  to  the  bedside  of  the  sleeping  patient. 
The  broken  arm  in  its  swathings  lay  partly  uncov 
ered;  and  across  his  wounded  brow  was  stretched  a 
broad  bandage,  below  which  his  face  showed  pale  and 
weary-looking,  in  the  half-stupor  of  his  deathlike 
slumber;  for  he  had  become  strangely  quiet.  His 


336        The  End — and  a  Beginning. 

uninjured  arm  lay  inertly  on  the  counterpane  beside 
him. 

She  took  his  hand,  and,  seating  herself  on  the 
bed,  began  softly  stroking  and  patting  the  hand, 
gazing  all  the  time  in  his  face.  He  stirred,  and, 
turning  his  eyes  toward  her,  awoke. 

"Don't  move,  my  darling,"  said  she  quietly, 
and  as  if  she  had  been  for  a  long,  long  time  quite  in 
the  habit  of  so  speaking  to  him;  "don't  move,  or 
you'll  hurt  your  arm."  Then  she  bent  down  her 
head,  lower  and  lower,  until  her  cheek  touched  his. 

"I've  come  to  sit  with  you,  Jim,  dear,"  said  she, 
softly — "if  you  want  me — if  I  can  do  you  any  good." 

"I  want  you,  always,"  said  he. 

She  stooped  again,  and  this  time  laid  her  lips 
lingeringly  on  his;  and  his  arm  stole  about  the  slim 
waist. 

"If  you'll  just  get  well,"  she  whispered,  "you 
may  have  me— always! " 

He  passed  his  fingers  over  her  hair,  and  kissed  her 
again  and  again.  Then  he  looked  at  her  long  and 
earnestly. 

"Where's  Al?"  said  he;   "I  want  Al!" 

I  came  forward  promptly.  I  thought  that  this 
violation  of  the  doctor's  regulation  requiring  rest  and 
quiet  had  gone  quite  far  enough. 

"Al,"  said  he,  still  holding  her  hand,  "do  you 
remember  out  there  by  the  windmill  tower  that 
night,  and  the  petunias  and  four-o- 'clocks?" 

"Yes,  Jim,  I  remember,"  said  I.  "But  you 
mustn't  talk  any  more  now." 

"No,  I  won't,"  said  he,  and  went  right  on;   "but 


The  End — and  a  Beginning.       337 

even  before  that,  and  ever  since,  I  haven't  wanted 
anything  we've  been  trying  so  hard  to  get,  half  as 
much  as  I've  wanted  Josie;  and  now — we  lost  the 
fight,  didn't  we?  Things  have  been  slipping  away 
from  us,  haven't  they?  Gone,  aren't  they?" 

"Go  to  sleep  now,  Jim,"  said  I.  "Plenty  of 
time  for  those  things  when  you  wake  up." 

"Yes,"  said  he;  "but  before  I  do,  I  want  you  to 
tell  me  one  thing,  honest  injun,  hope  to  die,  you 
know!" 

"Yes,"  said  I;  "what  is  it,  Jim?" 

"I've  been  seeing  a  lot  of  funny  things  in  the 
dark  corners  about  here;  but  this  seems  more  real 
than  any  of  them,"  he  went  on;  "and  I  want  you 
to  tell  me — is  this  really  Josie?" 

"Really,"  I  assured  him,  'really,  it  is." 

"Oh,  Jim,  Jim!"  she  cried,  "have  you  learned  to 
doubt  my  reality,  just  because  I'm  kind!  Why, 
I'm  going  to  be  good  to  you  now,  dearest,,  always, 
always!  And  kinder  than  you  ever  dreamed,  Jim. 
And  I'm  going  to  show  you  that  everything  has  not 
slipped  away  from  you,  my  poor,  poor  boy;  and 
that,  whatever  may  come,  I  shall  be  with  you  always. 
Only  get  well;  only  get  well!" 

"Josie,"  said  he,  smiling  wanly,  "you  couldn't 
kill  me — now — not  with  an  ax!" 


THE    END. 


Some  thirty  genial  satires  on  subjects  of  universal  interest. 

The  Thoughtless  Thoughts  of 
Ciarisabel 

By  ISA    CARRINGTON   CABELL. 

izmo,  gilt  top,  #K»5  net  (by  mail  $1.37) 

The  topics  include:  "The  New  Man,"  "The  Child,"  "One's 
Relatives,"  "The  Telltale  House,"  "Servants,"  "Dinner  Parties," 
"Ignorance  is  Bliss,"  "Liking  vs.  Love,"  "Nervous  Prostra 
tion,"  etc. 

N.  Y.  TIMES  SATURDAY  REVIEW: 

"That  the  discriminating  ought  to  approve  the  book  is 
unquestionable  .  .  .  written  with  a  delicacy  of  style  and  a 
happiness  of  expression  that  very  few  essayists  of  today  pos 
sess  .  .  .  peculiarly  dainty  work.  .  .  .  The  moods  in 
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but  always  in  comedy  and  pathos,  there  are  the  same  ten 
derness  and  delicacy.  The  book  is  distinctly  worth  reading." 
N.  Y.  TRIBUNE: 

"New  points  of  view  presented  in  sprightly  fashion." 
N.  Y.  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISER: 

"Clever    conversation,    bright,    graceful    dabs    of   opinion 
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"Extremely  clever  and  thoroughly  amusing." 
PUBLIC  OPINION: 

"Witty,  easily  moving  comment  on  the  world  and  the  fol 
lies    thereof    .     .    .    delightful,   but   at    the    same   time    thor 
oughly  wise." 
PROVIDENCE  JOURNAL: 

"The  author  has  some  exceedingly  pertinent  and  illumi 
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fame   of  life,    sees   all   the   shams   and   insincerities,   and   yet 
nds  it  worth  while." 
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ity.  .  .  .  She  has  a  keen  perception  of  what  is  ridiculous 
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in  tlurton  E.  Stevenson."— CHICAGO  REC 


RECORD-HERALD. 


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By  BURTON  E.   STEVENSON 

With  Frontispiece  by  ELIOT  KEEN 

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^|~  An  absorbing  tale  of  a  modern  mystery,  in  which  the 
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scenes  shift  from  New  York,  partly  in  the  French  quarter, 
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NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  :- 

Professor  Dicey  recently  said  to  a  company  of  students: 
"  If  you  like  a  detective  story  take  care  you  read  a  good  de 
tective  story."  This  is  a  good  detective  story,  and  it  is  the 
better  because  the  part  of  the  hero  is  not  filled  by  a  member 
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book  down  until  tie  has  reached  the  last  page.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  ingeniously  constructed  detectivel  stories  we  have 
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Developed    with  novelty  and  originality    ...    may  be 

heartily  commended. 

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Miss  Allen's  stories,  notably  "By  the  Favor  of  the  Gods," 
in  a  recent  Harper's  Monthly,  have  won  acceptance  by  our 
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ful,  dainty,  trifling  way  ...  a  little  simple  story  of  young  love  aad 
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N.  Y.  TRIBUNE: 

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A  Duke  and  His  Double 

By  EDWARD  S.  VAN  ZILE. 
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A  tale  of  New  York  life  today  that  has  most  of  the  quali 
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NEW  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION   (8th  Printing)  OF 

The  Ways  of  Yale 

in    the   Consulship    of   Plancus 

By  HENRY  A.  BEERS. 

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